From Progress Michigan:
LANSING — Documents obtained by Progress Michigan, a government watchdog group, reveal that Governor Rick Snyder’s Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore met with Flint residents regarding a positive lead sample on August 4, 2015 — nearly two months before Snyder claims to have known about the lead crisis. The meeting was not referenced in the emails released by Gov. Snyder on January20th or the timelinereleased by his administration after his State of the State address.
Snyder claims to have first heard about the lead crisis on October 1, 2015.
The documents include an internal timeline from a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employee showing that a meeting with Flint residents took place and a follow-up email from Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards was sent regarding the invalidation of a positive lead sample by the MDEQ that was discussed in that meeting.
…
“The failure to disclose this meeting in August involving his most senior staffer calls Snyder’s entire timeline of events into question and the fact that the emails he released yesterday have nothing regarding it speaks volumes,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “Did Snyder know about this August meeting? If he did, why hasn’t he disclosed that to the public? We will never know until he releases all emails from his office, including those of Dennis Muchmore.”
So either Snyder is a liar, or his Chief of Staff is involved in some kind of conspiracy to keep his boss in the dark. I’m going with the first option.
Giant h/t to eclectablog, who covered this story here.
Next week’s cover of Time Magazine: