The Flint Water Prosecution Team is scheduled to announce its findings at a news conference on Thursday morning, after former Michigan governor Rick Snyder and former Flint Public Works director Howard Croft were charged. On Wednesday.
CNN contacted a lawyer for Snyder and a lawyer for Croft to comment on the allegations.
Flint has been exposed to extremely high levels of lead since 2014, when city and state officials moved the city’s water supply from the Detroit Water System to the contaminated Flint River in an effort to cut costs.
The switch was supposed to be temporary while a new supply line to Lake Huron was completed. When the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality stopped treating corrosive water, it corroded the city’s iron and lead pipes and spread through drinking water.
The contaminated water led to two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, a severe type of pneumonia caused by bacteria.
More than a dozen lawsuits and a $ 600 million settlement
Brian Lennon, Snyder’s lawyer, said on Wednesday that his client was being made a scapegoat by a special political-oriented lawyer. Lennon called reports that his client would be accused of “without merit” and part of a “political escape”.
A Croft lawyer told The Detroit News that his client was informed on Monday that he would be charged.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office did not comment on the charges Wednesday night.
More than a dozen lawsuits, including several class actions, have been filed against the state, the city of Flint and some state and municipal officials involved in the decision to change the drinking water source and those responsible for monitoring water quality .
The Legionnaires’ outbreak led to criminal charges against state officials, including Nick Lyon, then director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, in 2017.
Taylor Romine and Joe Sutton of CNN contributed to this report.