FBI Investigating Flint Lead Poisoning Scandal

FLINT, MI – The FBI has joined the investigation into the Flint lead-poisoning scandal, federal prosecutors and others have confirmed.

FBI Detroit field office spokesman Jill Washburn told The Detroit News the agency has been investigating the manmade public health catastrophe “for a while” to “determine if there are any federal violations.”

The multi-agency investigative team includes the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which said in January it was looking into the crisis,as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, EPA’s Office of Inspector General, and EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division.”

The disclosure that the FBI is investigating whether federal regulations were violated comes as a congressional inquiry is poised to get under way in Washington, DC. Hearings begin Wednesday, and the The Detroit Free Press reports that former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley may refuse to testify.

An unknown number of Flint children and others were exposed to lead poisoning when Flint was under emergency management in 2014. As emergency manager, Earley approved the switch of Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014. Corrosive water from the Flint River caused lead in pipes to leach.

Earley, also the emergency emergency manager overseeing the troubled Detroit Public Schools system, plans to leave that state-appointed position, Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday in a statement.

Earlier reports from the office of U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, said Snyder had been invited to testify, but that apparently is not the case.

With a criminal investigation under way, more witnesses may invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to testify, the Free Press said.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality director Dan Wyant, who resigned in December, EPA Region 5 Director Susan Hedman and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver may also testify.

The Snyder administration has been dogged for months about when state officials knew about the elevated lead levels in children, exposed in a stinging report by whistleblowers Dr. Mona Hanna-Atissha, a pediatric doctor at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, whose findings of elevated lead levels in children’s blood triggered outside investigations into the crisis; and Virginia Tech Professor Mark Edwards, a specialist who brought a team to Flint to study the level of lead in the city’s drinking water.

Snyder has appointed a task force to look into the Flint water crisis, and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette tapped former Wayne County prosecutor and Royal Oak attorney Todd Flood and retired FBI chief Andrew Arena to lead an investigation into the scandal.