Former Governor Snyder Exercises Fifth Amendment in Flint Water Trial

ANN ARBOR, June 30, 2022 ~ Former Governor Rick Snyder invoked his right to the Fifth Amendment today, again declining to testify about the Flint water crisis, this time in a federal lawsuit filed for damages against the engineering companies allegedly responsible.

The trial intends to find if engineering firms Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman are responsible for Flint’s lead-contaminated water starting in 2014. The firms however, declared during the opening arguments that they pin the blame on government officials.

This comes two days after the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the one-judge grand jury appointed by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office to investigate and indict Snyder and eight others acted outside state authority, saying a preliminary hearing needs to be held, or the charges need to be dropped.

“I think that people have the absolute right to the presumption of innocence,” said Congressman Dan Kildee to 760 WJR‘s Tom Jordan and Kevin Dietz. “But I am concerned that if this particular set of charges are being set aside only because of a procedural step…they need to refile and go through the proper process.“