Detroit Free Press - Cummings Raises Specter of Criminal Charges for Rick Snyder Over Flint

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The ranking Democrat on the U.S.House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led off hearings Thursday with an unsparing attack on Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration.

"The governor's fingerprints are all over this," said Rep Elijah Cummings, who said that if a corporate CEO had sold toys laced with lead that children put in their mouths, he would be "hauled up on criminal charges," and the same should happen in the Snyder administration.

"What if a CEO ran a company that sold toys laced with lead that children put in their mouths," Cummings asked near the opening of Thursday's hearing.

What if those children were poisoned as a result? And what if that CEO ignored warnings for more than a year as those kids got sicker and sicker and sicker. There is no doubt in my mind if a corporate CEO did what Gov. Snyder's administration has done he would be hauled up on criminal charges, the board of directors would throw him out and the shareholders would revolt -- just some of what is happening now to Gov. Snyder."

Snyder has repeatedly apologized for the state's role in the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, and did so again before the congressional panel Thursday. He calls the catastrophe a failure at all three levels of government.

Snyder has approved outside legal contracts worth $1.2 million in connection with the crisis, including a contract worth up to $800,000 for the Grand Rapids law firm of Warner Norcross & Judd to advise him on any criminal investigations and prosecutions. The governor is confident he has not committed any crimes, spokesman Ari Adler said.

Other Democratic congressmen joined Cummings in attacking Snyder.

U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania urged Snyder to resign, saying he ignored news media reports about widespread complaints on the taste and color of Flint's water, as well as staff reports.

Snyder told Cartwright he read the media reports but each time, state bureaucrats told him the water was safe.

"Plausible deniability only works when it's plausible," Cartwright told Snyder.

"Pretty soon, we will have men who strike their wives saying, … "There were failures at all levels,' " Cartwright said.

Cummings noted that Snyder's top legal adviser urged a return to the Detroit water system in October 2014, and early in 2015 Snyder's then chief of staff urged action without further procrastination.

"When we are dead and gone our grandchildren will suffer for what we failed to do," he said.

Snyder and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy appeared jointly before the committee during its third day of hearings into what caused the Flint drinking water public health crisis and how to prevent a recurrence.

In his prepared remarks, Snyder said "I am not going to point fingers or shift blame; there is plenty of that to share, and neither will help the people of Flint."

But the governor went on to say that an EPA water expert tried to raise the alarm about Flint water in February 2015, "and he was silenced."

"Inefficient, ineffective, and unaccountable bureaucrats at the EPA allowed this disaster to continue unnecessarily," Snyder said in the prepared remarks.

Cummings acknowledged failures by the EPA, but pivoted to again attack Snyder.

The EPA should have acted sooner "to rescue the people of Michigan from Gov. Snyder's vindictive administration and utter incompetence," Cummings said.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014, when the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched its drinking water source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit water system to Flint River water treated at the Flint water treatment plant.

The state DEQ failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals as part of the treatment process, and the corrosive Flint River water ate into pipes, joints and fixtures, sending unsafe lead levels into Flint homes and businesses. The city returned to Detroit water system in October, but a potential hazard remains because of damage to the water distribution system.

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