As governor, Rick Snyder ran on what he called "relentless positive action," but what others might just call putting a cheerful face on overseeing his administration's biggest atrocity — the Flint water crisis. But now that his role as governor is over and the attorney general's office is ramping up its probe into Flint, it seems that Snyder's relentless positive action tank is running low.
He tweeted as much Tuesday night following news that the AG's office "seized" his state-owned cellphone as part of the probe, saying he was "dialing back the RPA a bit today" in response to the "sloppy and misleading" reports.
I am dialing back the RPA a bit today. The stories coming out about my state phone and computer are very sloppy and misleading. I gave my phone and all that stuff to the AG's office before I left office. Why the AG's office is executing a search warrant on itself I cannot say.
— Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd) June 5, 2019
Snyder says there was no "seizing" — he voluntarily handed over his phone to the office on his way out the door. In reality, the AG's office chose to execute search warrants to obtain Snyder's phone from its own storage — along with those of 66 other top aides and government employees — as part of the investigation. (Search warrants offer prosecutors more protection.)
So it seems to be an issue of semantics here: "Seize" is perhaps too sensational of a word. Then again, we're talking about the accidental poisoning of an American city with lead here.
Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, had this to say: "Mr. Snyder knows darn well why search warrants are being executed. It's the pursuit of justice for the people of Flint, pure and simple."
According to the AP, the investigation into Snyder alone has produced more than 3,000 documents.
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