Michigan Republican unloads on Nessel over failure to provide Flint water documents
Rep. Angela Rigas, chair of the Michigan House Oversight Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, released a scathing statement Wednesday evening blasting Attorney General Dana Nessel over continued delays in producing requested documents related to the Flint water criminal prosecutions.
Nessel's office delivered numerous documents to Rigas's office on Wednesday, but the representative said it was not at all what she requested.
'Dana Nessel's office sent us an incomplete, incoherent mess of documents on a password-protected flash drive like they were bringing us the Holy Grail,' Rigas said.
Rigas had requested documents related to the legal battles that ensued during Nessel's term and in the aftermath of Flint's water supply being contaminated in 2014. The contamination occurred due to a switch of the water supply without proper lead contamination prevention.
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Former Attorney General Bill Schuette began an investigation and prosecution, the latter of which began in 2016. Schuette charged a city of Flint employee and two employees with what was then known as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality [now known as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy].
Nessel became attorney general in 2018 and scuttled Schuette's investigation and prosecution to begin anew in 2021. She formed a Flint water prosecution team led by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and former Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud while Nessel spearheaded the civil litigation side, which resulted in a mammoth settlement.
The criminal cases resulted in charges against former Governor Rick Snyder and several members of his administration, but those charges were later dismissed after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutorial team had used a one-man grand jury process to indict them without at first holding a preliminary examination that would have given the defendants a chance to poke holes in the attorney general's presentation of probable cause.
Justices of the high court ruled the process as unconstitutional, and the charges were dismissed shortly thereafter.
Rigas (R-Caledonia) as the chair of the House Oversight subcommittee, requested records from Nessel on March 12 with a deadline of March 25 to give the subcommittee various documents. The request included a comprehensive itemized list of all billable hours, legal fees and associated costs incurred during Nessel's tenure as attorney general, including personnel time, outside counsel and expert witnesses; a breakdown of all state funds allocated and expended on these cases; copies of contracts and invoices or memorandums of understanding with third parties retained by her office; and a summary of reimbursements, settlements or cost recoveries tied to the cases.
Nessel requested an eight-week extension, which Rigas granted, with a deadline of Tuesday.
Rigas in a news release issued Wednesday evening said the attorney general's staff brought a password protected flash drive to Rigas' office, which was also shared with some members of the Lansing Capitol press corps. Nessel's office also shared a copy of a letter sent to Rigas' office on Tuesday indicating that the document haul was just one half of those requested by Rigas and that the other portion would be delivered to the representative on or before June 17.
Rigas said that the flash drive contained 'a mass array of unrelated documents that were never requested, mostly from [former Attorney General] Bill Schuette's tenure.' The documents delivered to Rigas mostly contained contracts with attorneys and appointed special counsel Todd Flood and various invoices from Flood's office.
Needless to say, Rigas was unhappy with what was turned over to her office.
'[Nessel] and her office have consistently failed to meet deadline after deadline, and it's unacceptable,' Rigas said. 'She has failed to follow simple directions and comply with what has so clearly been requested. There will be no more extensions. No more games. This ends now.'
A request for comment was sent to the Attorney General's office, but has yet to be returned.
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