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Former Flint emergency manager will testify before Congress

Steve Carmody
/
Michigan Radio

After originally refusing to do so, former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley will testify for a Congressional committee about the Flint water crisis. 

Several media outlets, including the Detroit Free Press and CNN, reported the committee had issued Earley a subpoena to testify.

Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reported Wednesday that Scott Bolden, Earley's attorney who is based in Washington, D.C., said Earley will accept the subpoena and "wants to tell his story."

Bolden told the Journal:

"He certainly has information to share. He certainly is in the eye of the storm."

The announcement comes after several Congressmen vehemently urged Earley to testify. 

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chaired the committee hearing Wednesday, told marshals to "hunt (Earley) down," according to the Associated Press.

Earley currently serves as the emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools. However, he announced on Tuesday that he would be stepping down from the position on Feb. 29.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing titled "Examining Federal Administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Flint, Michigan" on Wednesday. The hearing included testimony from:

  • U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee , D-Flint;
  • Joel Beauvais, acting deputy assistant administrator at the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency;
  • Keith Creagh, director of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality;
  • Marc Edwards, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; 
  • Lee Anne Walters, a Flint resident.
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