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COLLAGE BY HUNTER FRENCH | IMAGES VIA GETTY AND BRITTANY GREESON<\/p><\/div>\n
Flint Water Crisis<\/h4>\nMichigan’s Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder Knew About Flint’s Toxic Water\u2014and Lied About It<\/h1>\nSix years after the city of Flint, Michigan, began using a toxic water source that sickened its residents, VICE uncovered payoffs, the silencing of a whistleblower, a shady financial deal, a coverup, and the former governor who presided over it all.<\/h3>\n
Six years after the city of Flint, Michigan, began using a toxic water source that sickened its residents, VICE uncovered payoffs, the silencing of a whistleblower, a shady financial deal, a coverup, and the former governor who presided over it all.<\/h3>\n
By Jordan Chariton & By Jenn Dize<\/p>\n
Photos By Brittany Greeson<\/p>\n
During the inauguration of his successor, outgoing Michigan Governor Rick Snyder needed a favor.<\/p>\n
At the January 2019 event, Snyder approached Karen Weaver, who was then the mayor of Flint, a city of nearly 100,000 people that was still reeling from financial decay and a toxic-water crisis. He asked whether she could meet with Congressman Elijah Cummings.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a lot of influence with him,\u201d Weaver remembered a worried Snyder saying to her about Cummings. At the time, Cummings was the incoming chairman of the powerful U.S. House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n
Throughout the water crisis, Cummings led<\/a>\u00a0the charge as Congress demanded Snyder and his administration provide more information about what he knew about the poisonous water that ravaged the impoverished majority-minority Rust Belt city after it switched water sources to the corrosive Flint River in 2014, and when he knew it. More specifically, Cummings pushed for more information on when Snyder first learned of the lethal\u00a0Legionella pneumophila<\/em>\u00a0bacterial outbreak in Flint. Snyder\u00a0testified to Congress<\/a>\u00a0that he first became aware of Legionella in January 2016 and held a press conference the next day. Flint residents didn\u2019t believe the governor; their doubt intensified after Harvey Hollins, the director of the state\u2019s Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives office, contradicted the governor,\u00a0testifying<\/a>\u00a0in court\u00a0that he informed Snyder about Flint\u2019s Legionella outbreak in December 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Back at the inauguration, Weaver said, Snyder asked her to get Cummings to \u201cback off\u201d from\u00a0investigating him<\/a>, emphasizing that he wanted to move on with his life as a private citizen. He said \u201cit would go a long way\u201d if the request to the congressman came from her, Weaver recalled to VICE. Weaver\u2019s former spokesperson, Candice Mushatt, as well as two other sources, confirmed that she had described the governor\u2019s request to them after it occurred. (Snyder did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story).<\/em><\/p>\n What Snyder didn\u2019t know then was that Cummings and Weaver had already spoken after Democrats won control of the House in the 2018 midterm election. Weaver said Cummings disclosed his plan to compel Snyder back to Congress for additional questioning. He wanted her there. But Cummings\u2019 death in October 2019 prevented that from occurring.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n After a VICE investigation spanning a year and a half across the state of Michigan, overwhelming evidence indicates Snyder had good reason to worry.<\/em><\/p>\n Hundreds of confidential pages of documents obtained by VICE, along with emails and interviews, reveal a coordinated, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials to prevent news of Flint\u2019s deadly water from going public\u2014while there was still time to save lives\u2014and then limit the damage after the crisis made global headlines.<\/em><\/p>\n All told, the waterborne bacterial disease may have\u00a0killed<\/a> at least 115 people in 2014 and 2015, and potentially more whose pneumonia wasn\u2019t officially considered Legionnaires\u2019 disease, the illness caused by Legionella. In addition to the outbreak, Flint’s water supply was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, harmful bacteria, carcinogens, and other toxic components. This wreaked havoc on Flint residents, leaving them with a laundry list of illnesses, including kidney and liver problems, severe bone and muscle pain, gastrointestinal problems, loss of teeth, autoimmune diseases, neurological deficiencies, miscarriages, Parkinson\u2019s disease, severe fatigue, seizures, and volatile mood disorders.<\/em><\/p>\n Beyond this, the long-term effects of heavy-metal poisoning takes years to develop, meaning many ill residents\u2019 conditions are worsening as the years go on. Many have said they still rely on bottled water to avoid using the water that comes through their pipes and into their homes, schools, and businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n VICE has learned that prosecutors leading the criminal investigation secretly subpoenaed key members of Snyder\u2019s inner circle, including chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s \u201cfixer” and top adviser Rich Baird, and state treasurer Andy Dillon, as they built a case against the governor. Documents reveal the governor\u2019s chief legal counsel, Beth Clement, knew Snyder\u2019s top officials were subpoenaed by prosecutors, suggesting Snyder knew as well (a spokesperson for Clement, now a judge, said she couldn\u2019t comment on a case pending in any court). The aggressive investigation into Snyder may explain why the governor\u2019s office\u2019s legal fees, paid for by state taxpayers,\u00a0came to at least $8.5 million<\/a>\u00a0in the years after the water crisis made national headlines.<\/em><\/p>\n Snyder and his administration were investigated by a team led by special prosecutor Todd Flood from 2016 to 2019. The team concluded that the administration had \u201ccommitted conspiracies of ongoing crimes, like an organized crime unit,\u201d a source with knowledge of the probe told VICE.<\/em><\/p>\n But before a case against Snyder could develop, the state\u2019s newly appointed attorney general, Dana Nessel, fired top prosecutors and investigators pursuing the case.<\/em><\/p>\n Investigative subpoena documents obtained by VICE, along with details from sources with knowledge of the Flint water criminal prosecution, reveal that:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to sources familiar with the criminal investigation, as well as Flint residents VICE spoke to, during those 16 months, Snyder\u2019s top advisor, Baird, attempted to pay off sick Flint residents to keep quiet and silenced a whistleblower sounding alarms over the city using the Flint River while there was still time to save lives. And Snyder himself \u201cpunished\u201d Weaver, Flint\u2019s mayor, she said, after she repeatedly refused his administration\u2019s requests for her to declare the water safe in Flint to residents.<\/em><\/p>\n What follows is the full, never-before-told story behind the cover-up of a government poisoning tens of thousands of innocent people\u2014and the ongoing, six-year-old crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n When Rick Snyder became the governor of Michigan, Flint was broke.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mired in a $10.1 million\u00a0deficit<\/a>\u00a0in 2010, the city had deteriorated after the slow exit of its one-time economic engine, General Motors, for cheaper offshore pastures. Yet there seemed to be a way to save cash. Flint had been\u00a0paying $11 to $12 million annually<\/a>\u00a0for drinking water funneled from Detroit Water and Sewage (DWSD), which, at the time, was the\u00a0third-largest<\/a>\u00a0water and sewage utility in the country,\u00a0covering<\/a>\u00a040 percent of Michigan\u2019s residents. State and city officials saw slashing Flint\u2019s water bill as the way to get the city back in the black.<\/em><\/p>\n Snyder, the former president of Gateway Computers, won his gubernatorial bid in 2010 after\u00a0campaigning<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201ctough nerd<\/a>\u201d who could turn around Michigan\u2019s ailing cities the same way he\u2019d rehabilitated his past businesses. In 2011, the governor\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0a financial emergency in Flint and, controversially, appointed an unelected emergency manager, Michael Brown, to run the city. Brown’s power superseded that of the elected city mayor and city council.<\/em><\/p>\n Once in place as emergency manager, Brown, who was Flint\u2019s former interim mayor, swiftly\u00a0took on the Snyder administration\u2019s water-switch plan<\/a>\u00a0as a cost-cutting measure. In February 2012, Brown\u00a0wrote<\/a> in the Flint Deficit Elimination Plan that the city was considering utilizing its Flint River as a short-term alternative to purchasing water from Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n Local Detroit officials and water activists saw a more sinister motivation at play,\u00a0accusing<\/a>\u00a0Snyder of trying to break up DWSD in order to regionalize, and privatize, Michigan\u2019s water supply.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWater was the cash cow,\u201d Meeko Williams, political director for Detroit Water Brigade, told VICE, adding that Snyder was \u201cheavily involved in shutting down DWSD and privatizing the system.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Brown\u2019s suggestion to use the Flint River came less than a year after a 2011 engineering\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by Flint city officials determined its outdated water treatment plant was woefully incapable of safely treating Flint River water. (Brown didn\u2019t respond to VICE\u2019s request for comment, or to the revelation that he had been interviewed by the FBI in 2016.) The report advised that $61 million in upgrades would be needed to meet that goal; it therefore suggested that Flint\u2019s cheapest water option was leaving DWSD for a new, permanent water pipeline called the\u00a0Karegnondi Water Authority<\/a>\u00a0(KWA) being proposed by Flint and Genesee County officials.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n FLINT’S WATER PLANT | BRITTANY GREESON<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But that latter proposal wasn’t free of flaws either. Genesee County, which Flint is part of, was the\u00a0majority owner<\/a>\u00a0of the proposed KWA; oddly, the county\u2019s elected drain commissioner, Jeff Wright, doubled as KWA CEO. Wright had a checkered past: In 2005, he was\u00a0accused of laundering<\/a>\u00a0funds during his 2000 drain commissioner campaign; he ultimately wasn\u2019t charged and denied the allegations, but the FBI did\u00a0seize<\/a>\u00a0his campaign records. Years later, Wright became an FBI\u00a0informant<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Wright told VICE there was \u201cno conflict of interest\u201d in his dual roles. He added that KWA is a \u201cpublic authority, not a for-profit water authority.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The 2011 study advising Flint to join the KWA, and pointing out the plethora of Flint water plant upgrades needed to treat Flint River water, was a formality, according to Bob Bowcock, a water treatment and testing engineer who partners with Erin Brockovich on environmental projects.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe analysis was done to bolster the agreement to join the pipeline project\u2026period,\u201d he told VICE. He added most engineering reports are mostly \u201crubber stamp validations for their clients’ desires.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In December 2012, another Flint River red flag was raised. After consulting with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Ed Kurtz, the second Flint emergency manager appointed by Governor Snyder,\u00a0rejected<\/a>\u00a0the idea of the city using the Flint River as a drinking water source, according to former Flint emergency manager Gerald Ambrose\u2019s deposition testimony. Despite the 2011 memo laying out the Flint water plant\u2019s inadequacies\u2014and Kurtz rejecting the use of the river a year later\u2014the idea wouldn\u2019t die.<\/em><\/p>\n Jeff Wright, along with other Genesee County and Flint officials, pitched Flint on joining the KWA pipeline as financial relief for Flint residents, who were paying\u00a0high DWSD water rates<\/a>. Unlike DWSD\u2019s pipeline, which brought Flint already-treated water from Lake Huron, KWA would deliver raw water to Flint, leaving it to the city\u2019s outdated water plant to treat the water.<\/em><\/p>\n But saving Flint money didn\u2019t seem to be the sole reason officials pushed the city to break up with DWSD.<\/em><\/p>\n Talk of the KWA opening up the mid-Michigan region to the \u201cblue economy<\/a>\u201d had begun\u2014in the form of promises of jobs that could be created due to businesses\u2019 demand for the raw water KWA would provide. DTE Energy in Michigan expressed\u00a0wanting<\/a>\u00a0as much as 3 million gallons daily (MGD) from the pipeline. Governor Snyder\u2019s natural gas\u00a0push<\/a>\u00a0across Michigan also led to\u00a0speculation<\/a>\u00a0that KWA water would be used for more fracking.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n While KWA was pushed as Flint\u2019s best option, another possibility was that Flint could save money by blending DWSD water, or KWA water, with its own Flint River water.<\/em><\/p>\n At the end of 2012, Governor Snyder\u2019s treasury department commissioned another Flint water study to compare the costs of each option. The\u00a0results<\/a>, released in February 2013, concluded that Flint\u2019s cheapest option was remaining with the DWSD. The study\u00a0concluded<\/a>\u00a0that KWA had underestimated its costs by $100 million.<\/em><\/p>\n In March 2013, more than a year before the Flint River switch, Stephen Busch, a supervisor with MDEQ\u2019s drinking water division, emailed other environmental officials in preparation for a call about Flint\u2019s water options with state treasurer Dillon, Busch, and MDEQ director Dan Wyant. Busch warned that continuous use of the Flint River would pose \u201can increased microbial risk to public health\u201d along with an \u201cincreased risk of disinfection by-product (carcinogen)\u201d to Flint residents.<\/em><\/p>\n In the investigative subpoena interview between treasurer Dillon and special prosecutor Flood obtained by VICE, Dillon didn\u2019t deny that Busch repeated his email\u2019s warnings on the call they had the same day. Soon after the call, a source familiar with the details of the Flint water criminal investigation told VICE that Dillon and MDEQ director Dan Wyant\u2014whom, VICE learned, prosecutors interviewed\u2014briefed Governor Snyder in person on Busch\u2019s warning about the hazards of the Flint River.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of B.S., wasn\u2019t it\u2026\u201d Flood began, \u201cthere was no real counter that would change anyone\u2019s mind?\u201d He concluded even if DWSD had \u201cMoses\u201d presenting the offer, local politicians in Genesee County and Flint were hellbent on moving Flint onto the KWA pipeline.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n BUSCH WARNED THAT CONTINUOUS USE OF THE FLINT RIVER WOULD POSE \u201cAN INCREASED MICROBIAL RISK TO PUBLIC HEALTH.\u201d | BRITTANY GREESON<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Dillon, who previously revealed he was \u201clobbied heavily<\/a>\u201d by KWA CEO Wright to approve Flint joining KWA, acknowledged to Flood that he shared his suspicion over whether the \u201ccake was already baked\u201d for Flint to leave DWSD and the negotiation process illegitimate: \u201cThat\u2019s why I followed up with Dan [MDEQ director Wyant] after, to make certain that the last best offer was rejected [by Flint] in good faith because that was a condition\u2026for them to be able to go to KWA.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Despite DWSD\u2019s cheaper offer to Flint, the city rejected it, and Dillon\u00a0signed off<\/a>\u00a0on Flint switching to the KWA pipeline, which Snyder supported. On his KWA decision, Dillon told VICE, \u201cI was against [Flint] taking any financial risk on the project.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Wright, and the engineering firms that received pipeline contracts, seem to have personally benefited from the deal: An\u00a0analysis<\/a> of Wright\u2019s 2016 drain commissioner campaign by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan found that 70 percent of his donations came from \u201cpolitical action committees and employees of companies doing business directly with the KWA or working on the pipeline in some capacity.\u201d Wright told the ACLU, \u201cConstruction contracts for my office are competitively bid, with the lowest qualified bidder awarded each contract,\u201d adding that his donations are similar to other county officials and the claim that the KWA was a vehicle to increase his campaign donations was \u201cnot valid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Despite Wright\u2019s claims of KWA construction contracts being above board, documents obtained by VICE reveal former prosecutors proposed investigating the KWA, including its construction contracts and the pipeline\u2019s land purchases. These prosecutors viewed the KWA investigation as an overall priority that could lead to criminal charges.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Three months after Dillon signed off on Flint\u2019s switch to KWA, Kurtz\u00a0authorized<\/a>\u00a0using the Flint River as the city\u2019s temporary water source \u201cfor approximately two years\u201d until KWA pipeline construction was completed. Despite this, Kurtz\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Congressional investigators he \u201cnever made a decision to use Flint River water.\u201d He also said his role was \u201cstrictly finance\u201d and \u201cdid not include ensuring safe drinking water.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Eight days before the 2014 water switch, Mike Glasgow, Flint\u2019s laboratory and water quality supervisor,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0to MDEQ, \u201cIf water is distributed from this plant in the next couple weeks, it will be against my direction.\u201d He added that managers \u201cseem to have their own agenda.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Glasgow\u2019s warnings didn\u2019t matter. The switch was made on April 25, 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n Proper corrosion control chemicals weren\u2019t added into the Flint River supply at the time of the switch, a step that could have prevented lead in the aging pipes from dislodging into the water traveling into people\u2019s homes. What’s more, at the time of the water switch, Flint\u2019s water plant didn\u2019t even have the\u00a0proper equipment<\/a> to add the corrosion control chemicals.<\/em><\/p>\n Glasgow \u201cdid everything he could to stop\u201d the switch \u201cbecause he knew on a number of levels that [the Flint water plant was] not yet ready for such a change,\u201d Glasgow\u2019s attorney, Robert Harrison, told VICE. \u201cHe was ignored repeatedly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Chlorine levels added to the water supply were also\u00a0inconsistent<\/a>\u2014high in some parts of the city, and too low in other parts. This allowed the deadly waterborne bacteria Legionella to develop. The combination of heavy metals including lead, Legionella, cancer-causing contaminants (called total trihalomethanes, or TTHMs), and other elements found in the city water led to a disruptive health crisis. By October 2014, residents had been receiving discolored and odorous water\u00a0for<\/a>\u00a0months<\/a>. They developed rashes and started losing hair.<\/em><\/p>\n Busch, whose warning about the hazards of the Flint River were presented to Snyder a year before the water switch, prepared a post-switch memo that October. The memo was sent to Snyder, chief of staff Muchmore, several other figures in Snyder\u2019s office, and MDEQ director Dan Wyant. Among other potential causes, Busch\u2019s memo cited the dangers of a waterborne disease outbreak (i.e., Legionella) as the potential reason for Flint\u2019s need to have boil-water advisories the previous two months.<\/em><\/p>\n Although Legionella wasn\u2019t explicitly included in the memo, emails between state environmental and health officials around this time showed it became a serious topic of concern soon after Busch\u2019s memo.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Legionella is \u201cone of only five regulated microorganisms\u201d in the Safe Drinking Water Act, water expert Bob Bowcock explained to VICE, which is why, he said, Legionella \u201cabsolutely\u201d should have been on Busch\u2019s radar when he briefed Snyder. Busch didn\u2019t respond to VICE\u2019s request for comment.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite Busch\u2019s October 2014 memo to the governor, and the warning Snyder received a year before the water switch, the governor, weeks before his November 2014 reelection, did not act to switch Flint back to Detroit\u2019s water system.<\/em><\/p>\n Busch\u2019s memo mentioned an environmental agreement\u2014or an Administrative Consent Order (ACO)\u2014that Flint entered into with the state of Michigan just one month before the water switch.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Essentially, the agreement allowed Flint, by then a\u00a0nearly bankrupt<\/a>\u00a0city with a maxed-out debt limit, an\u00a0exemption<\/a>\u00a0to borrow tens of millions of dollars to fund the environmental cleanup of a local lime sludge lagoon. But\u00a0hidden<\/a>\u00a0within the agreement were provisions for something completely unrelated: Flint could join the KWA pipeline by borrowing more money. Or, as prosecutors plainly said in\u00a0warrant requests<\/a>, the ACO was a \u201csham.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Felony false pretense\u00a0charges<\/a>\u00a0were filed in 2016 by former Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette against two of Snyder\u2019s Flint emergency managers and two other Flint officials. The lime sludge lagoon \u201cbecame the vehicle to get a state waiver for the [KWA] bonds,\u201d an announcement with the charges stated.<\/em><\/p>\n Inexplicably, the allegedly fraudulent ACO also mandated that Flint temporarily use the Flint River as its drinking water source while the KWA pipeline was under construction. But by the time of the water switch in April 2014,\u00a0only $8 million<\/a>\u00a0of an estimated $69 million in needed upgrades to the Flint water plant was spent, according to a civil rights report on the Flint water crisis. This left residents vulnerable to more\u00a0corrosive<\/a> river water instead of the Lake Huron water they had been receiving from Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n Through Flint water criminal investigation documents obtained by VICE, we learned that as part of the former prosecution team\u2019s KWA investigation, prosecutors called for looking into what role Governor Snyder had in the makings of the KWA deal that ultimately led to Flint\u2019s disastrous decision to temporarily use the Flint River. Prosecutors pushed for calling a substantial list of witnesses, including top KWA officials, state treasury and environmental officials\u2014and a top adviser and strategist to Governor Snyder.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n VICE also learned that treasurer Dillon expressed surprise over the ACO that was signed when he was already gone from Snyder\u2019s administration.<\/em><\/p>\n “One of my conditions for approval was that Flint wouldn’t have debt for this,” Dillon told Flood, explaining that KWA CEO Wright had promised him that \u201cGenesee County and the KWA had the financing lined up\u201d and Flint would only be a customer receiving water\u2014not part of the \u201cthe financing of the KWA.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Wright didn\u2019t respond to VICE\u2019s questions on whether he promised Dillon that Flint wouldn\u2019t borrow any money to join KWA.<\/em><\/p>\n After the water switch, the KWA bonds hung over the cash-strapped city like a dark cloud. According to a source familiar with the details of the Flint water investigation, if Flint wanted to switch back to Detroit after the Flint River switch, the city would be stuck with its monthly Detroit water bill and still be on the hook for more than $100 million owed to KWA bondholders, which included big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.<\/em><\/p>\n A person familiar with the details of the Flint water criminal investigation emphasized the importance of Busch including details of the agreement for the KWA pipeline in the Flint water briefing he sent to Snyder in October 2014. It was a \u201ccover my ass\u201d move, the source explained: As residents\u2019 complaints about their discolored, smelly water grew, Busch referenced the ACO in the memo to the governor to remind him that the city was using the Flint River because the agreement for the KWA bonds required it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Busch didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment from VICE.<\/em><\/p>\n Three years later, Michigan’s new attorney general, Dana Nessel,\u00a0dropped felony charges<\/a>\u00a0related to the alleged KWA bond fraud against Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose (along with charges against five other high-profile state defendants). In a March 2019\u00a0interview<\/a>, Nessel said that after three years of the Flint water investigation, \u201cI didn\u2019t see any charges at all that had been filed in regard to that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Her claim is curious considering former attorney general Bill Schuette\u00a0charged<\/a>\u00a0two Flint emergency managers and two other Flint officials with felonies for their role in the KWA bond deal in 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n Beyond the KWA charges being dismissed, other potential financial charges were prematurely stifled, according to Andy Arena, the former chief Flint water criminal investigator. Arena (who was actively investigating the KWA bond deal according to sources close to the Flint probe)\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Detroit News that \u201cpretty significant\u201d criminal fraud charges were six months away before he was\u00a0fired<\/a> by AG Nessel in 2019. He also said the new prosecution team, led by Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud (who replaced Flood), never brought him in for a debriefing of his team\u2019s three years of investigative work.<\/em><\/p>\n In response to VICE\u2019s questions, a spokesperson for the current Flint water criminal investigation told VICE that Nessel is not involved with the criminal side of the investigation, citing a wall between the criminal investigation and the Flint water civil suits. Solicitor General Hammoud didn\u2019t respond to VICE\u2019s request for comment.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A source familiar with the details of the Flint criminal investigation said to follow the money to find out why the KWA charges were dismissed.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars,\u201d the source told VICE, suggesting any criminal proceedings on the KWA bond deal would risk angry bondholders demanding their money back. If that occurred, ultimately, the state of Michigan, which signed off on the allegedly fraudulent ACO that led to Flint joining the KWA, would be on the hook.<\/em><\/p>\n By the time Snyder received Busch\u2019s October 2014 memo about the potential for a dangerous bacteria to be in the water, Flint residents had already been poisoned for six months.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe source of the outbreak may be the Flint municipal water,\u201d state epidemiologist Shannon Johnson wrote in an email to colleagues on October 13, 2014. This was the same day General Motors announced it would\u00a0discontinue<\/a> using the Flint River because high levels of chloride in the river water corroded its parts. A state health spokesperson told VICE that Johnson couldn\u2019t answer questions \u201cdue to the ongoing criminal investigation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The next day, Valerie Brader, an environmental advisor and attorney for Snyder, emailed a group of top Snyder administration officials. She laid it all out: Flint\u2019s River teemed with E. coli and high levels of TTHMs. She called for the city to be fully or partially reconnected to Detroit\u2014\u201curgently.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Snyder\u2019s chief legal counsel, Michael Gadola, who grew up in Flint and whose mother still lived there, quickly responded, horrified: \u201cThe notion that I would be getting my drinking water from the Flint River is downright scary.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n During their investigative subpoena interview in October 2016, Muchmore acknowledged to Flood that Brader and Gadola weren\u2019t the only figures in the Snyder administration sounding the alarm on using the Flint River at that point.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn’t restricted to one person; let’s put it that way,\u201d Muchmore said, according to the transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n In response to questions from VICE, Muchmore said he was unable to respond, \u201cas much as I would like.\u201d Neither Flood nor Mike Gadola responded to VICE\u2019s requests for comment.<\/em><\/p>\n After receiving Brader\u2019s email, Muchmore referred her to Snyder\u2019s third Flint emergency manager, Darnell Earley, and Rich Baird, the governor\u2019s top adviser, who held the opaque title of \u201ctransformation manager.\u201d On a call with Brader and Baird, Earley\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it would be too costly to disconnect the city from the Flint River and switch back to DWSD, Brader later publicly\u00a0testified<\/a>. It seems possible that he was referring to more than $100 million in KWA bonds Flint would still be on the hook for while also having to pay Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n When Flood asked about the call during their investigative subpoena interview, Baird said he wasn\u2019t really involved and was \u201cchecked out\u201d and \u201cmultitasking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But, VICE learned, Baird was involved in the call. A source familiar with the criminal investigation revealed that beyond her public testimony, Brader was brought in for a confidential investigative subpoena interview with Flood. During it, she broke down in tears, revealing that Baird was not only involved in the call\u2014he made demands. Afterward, Baird warned her to never again send an email like the water warning again, Brader testified. According to a source familiar with the criminal investigation, neither Baird, nor other top Snyder officials, followed up with Brader about her Flint water concerns.<\/em><\/p>\n Baird did not respond to multiple requests for comment from VICE on Brader\u2019s claim and many other questions. Brader also declined to comment, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Darnell Earley didn\u2019t respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/em><\/p>\n A source familiar with the Flint criminal investigation, who\u2019s spoken with Brader, told VICE \u201cshe regrets not doing more. It haunts her at night, weighs on her conscience.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Baird\u2019s menacing nature seemed to not be an exception but the rule for how he operated as Snyder\u2019s right hand in government. In 2014, Baird left a hostile voicemail threatening to\u00a0sue<\/a>\u00a0a local AFL-CIO union leader who wrote a critical op-ed about him; he also threatened to\u00a0sue<\/a>\u00a0then-state senator Gretchen Whitmer for calling him a \u201ccrook\u201d on television. (Whitmer is now governor of Michigan.) In 2018, Baird lashed out at a Flint activist,\u00a0telling him<\/a> to \u201ccrawl back into whatever hole of illusion you reside in.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a fixer, he\u2019s an old-fashioned fixer,\u201d a source familiar with the criminal investigation told VICE. Baird\u2019s M.O. was \u201cby any means possible: threaten, coerce, whatever, to fix these things for Snyder.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Baird\u2019s \u201cfixing\u201d for Snyder expanded as the water crisis unfolded, allegedly descending into identifying Flint residents who could damage Snyder\u2014and trying to pay them off.<\/em><\/p>\n By 2017, Flint resident Adam Murphy had become ill with seizures, memory loss, and double vision. Things grew so bad he could no longer work as a millwright welder. His then-wife Christina developed severe skeletal and muscle pain. Their newborn son Declan\u2019s umbilical cord blood tested positive for lead in 2016 (the CDC cites no safe lead level for children).<\/em><\/p>\n Angry and desperate for help, Adam unleashed his rage at a water-crisis town hall in January 2017. A police officer removed him from the event and said she\u2019d connect him with a top state official who could help his family, Christina recalled to VICE. Adam\u2019s outburst received attention in the\u00a0<\/em>Flint Journal<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<\/em>Detroit News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Weeks later, Baird, an imposing man with broad shoulders and white-grey hair, stood in the Murphys\u2019 living room, bizarrely flanked by former Army National Guard colonel Scott W. Hiipakka, a state trooper, and Sheryl Thompson, an official from the state health department, according to Christina. Baird was there representing Snyder, or as he told them, his \u201cbest friend.\u201d He told the Murphys that the Snyder administration would fully pay for a medical treatment for Adam called\u00a0chelation therapy<\/a>, which injects agents into the body to bind to heavy metals like lead and extract them.<\/em><\/p>\n Christina told VICE that Baird said she\u2019d receive the treatment when she stopped breastfeeding Declan, and told Adam he would be the state\u2019s \u201cpilot program\u201d; if Adam\u2019s chelation proved successful, Baird signaled, it would be made available to the rest of Flint. (Following Murphy\u2019s chelation treatment, his blood-lead levels dropped dramatically; although he still has health problems, his seizures stopped and cognitive functioning improved, according to Christina, who is now his ex-wife).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to be the face of Flint,\u201d Baird said to Adam, according to Christina. The catch: The Murphys couldn\u2019t talk to the media about it or tell anyone the state was paying for the treatment. (Baird, Hiipakka, and Thompson didn\u2019t respond to VICE\u2019s requests for comment.)<\/em><\/p>\n Adam Murphy didn\u2019t agree to speak for this story, citing legal advice. In recent years, he\u2019s\u00a0\n
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