Flint water crisis: authorities seize governor’s state-owned electronic devices

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/03/flint-water-crisis-authorities-seize-governors-state-owned-electronic-devices

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Authorities investigating Flint’s water crisis have used search warrants to seize from storage the state-owned mobile devices of former Governor Rick Snyder and 65 other current or former officials, the Associated Press has learned.

The warrants were sought two weeks ago by the attorney general’s office and signed by a Flint judge, according to documents the AP obtained through public-records requests.

The Solicitor general, Fadwa Hammoud, and Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is helping with the investigation, confirmed they executed a series of search warrants related to the criminal investigation of Flint’s lead-contaminated water in 2014-15 and an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease. They declined to comment further.

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One warrant, signed 19 May, lists all content from Snyder’s cellphone, iPad and computer hard drive. Similar information was sought from the devices of 33 employees who worked in his office, 11 in the department of environmental quality and 22 in the department of health and human services.

The evidence was apparently initially obtained by former special prosecutor Todd Flood with investigative subpoenas. Because it has been kept in a division of the attorney general’s office, Hammoud took the unusual step of securing a warrant to search another part of the office. She has been managing the investigation since January.

A similar warrant was also issued to the department of technology, management and budget.

The warrants seek data from the devices of individuals who have been charged in the investigation but also uncharged officials such as Snyder, the former environmental quality director Dan Wyant and various people who worked in Snyder’s office.

The warrants came after Hammoud this year reported that boxes of records were discovered in the basement of a state building, including phone extractions and a “trove” of other materials stored on hard drives that allegedly had not been turned over in response to subpoenas.

Flood was ousted as special prosecutor in April after leading the three-year investigation that led to charges against current or former government officials, including two members of Snyder’s cabinet. Nobody in Snyder’s office has been charged.

Hammoud accused Flood of mishandling the production of records and other evidence collected from state agencies. He has defended his work, saying he acted professionally.