The Flint Water Prosecution Team is scheduled to announce its findings at a news conference Thursday morning after former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and former Flint Public Works director Howard Croft were each indicted on Wednesday.
CNN has reached out to 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 201
The switch was to be temporary while a new supply line to Lake Huron was completed. When the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality could not treat the corrosive water, it ate into the city’s iron and lead pipes and leached into the 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, a lawyer for Snyder, said earlier Wednesday that his client was made a scapegoat by a politically driven special adviser. Lennon called reports that his client would be charged with “unprofitable” and part of a “political escapade.”
A lawyer for Croft told Detroit News that his client was informed Monday that he would be charged.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office had no comment on the charges Wednesday night.
More than a dozen lawsuits, including several class actions, were filed against the state, the city of Flint and some state and city employees involved in the decision to change the source of drinking water and those responsible for monitoring water quality.
The legionnaires’ outbursts led to criminal charges against state officials, including Nick Lyon, then director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, in 2017.
CNN’s Taylor Romine and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
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