The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has opened an investigation of the Flint water crisis where an as yet unknown number of people have been poisoned by state officials who told them their water was safe to drink.
Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, told the Free Press Monday that federal prosecutors are “working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, EPA's Office of Inspector General, and EPA's Criminal Investigation Division." [...]
Jill Washburn, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, confirmed Tuesday the FBI is involved in the investigation but would not say when that involvement began. "Our role is to determine whether or not there have been federal violations," Washburn said.
The Detroit Free Press speculates that the FBI's involvement may prompt some witnesses to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify before Congress during hearing schedule for this week.
I have strong doubts that Governor Rick Snyder will ever be held accountable, but someone should be. It seems abundantly clear that state officials were well aware of the problem given that they shipped clean water to state employees over a year ago, but local residents were not advised to stop using their water until just recently. Officials did not even take steps to provide locals with water filters or bottled water until recently.
Emails obtained by various sources have revealed that the Snyder administration severely downplayed the threat posed to children.
Emails released by the office of Gov. Rick Snyder last week referred to a resident who said she was told by a state nurse in January 2015, regarding her son’s elevated blood lead level, “It is just a few IQ points. ... It is not the end of the world.”