An attorney who’s suing the state over its handling of the Flint water crisis is after a wide array of electronic communications from state officials.
Michael Pitt says that includes all of Gov. Rick Snyder’s e-mails about Flint going back to 2011.
Pitt says he’ll ask a judge to order officials in the executive office and a number of state departments to turn over a wide variety of communications about Flint.
“We’re going to be pursuing people’s cell phones, we’re going to be pursuing their iPads, we’re going to be pursuing any electronic devices where text messages may have been transmitted,” said Pitt, appearing on the Michigan Public Television program Off the Record.
“I mean, we are going to be very aggressive in pursuing the data to help further move the timeline along.”
Pitt says he thinks it will be difficult for Snyder to fight the request.
“He may, but I don’t think he’s got much of a hope. They’re germane to the case.”
Earlier this week, Snyder released e-mails from 2014 and 2015.
Pitt believes those e-mails already show the administration failed to put Flint residents first.
“They were more concerned about the politics than the public health emergency. They didn’t really show much care for the people that were being harmed by this. They were just worried about the optics – how do we look and who can we blame for this?”
Gov. Snyder apologized to the people of Flint for his administration’s handling of the crisis during his State of the State Address this week and promised he “will fix it.”
