EXCLUSIVE: Audio shows ex-MI Gov. Rick Snyder's right-hand-man Rich Baird lying about Snyder/MI officials receiving warnings over Flint's toxic water early on during #FlintWaterCrisis—& allegedly paying off sick Flint couple.
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Baird met w/ sick Flint resident Adam Murphy/then-wife Christina after Adam received media attention for popping off at a 2017 #FlintWaterCrisis town hall. Baird told them the governor/top officials had been told Flint's water problem was "under control" early on. This is a lie.
In October 2014—6 months after the water switch—Snyder's environmental advisor/lawyer Valerie Brader (magna cum laude Harvard graduate) pleaded w/ Snyder's chief of staff, right-hand man Baird & other officials on the "urgent" need to switch Flint off the Flint River. Baird..
then allegedly threatened her telling her to never send another email like the "urgent" Flint water one she had sent. As @JennElizabethJ and I reported for @VICE based on source who spoke w/ her, "it haunts her at night, weighs on her conscience"
In addition to Brader pleading w/ Baird and other Snyder officials that Flint's water wasn't, as Baird told the Murphys, "under control," there was other state officials making calls and email during this same October 2014 period about the deadly Legionella outbreak in Flint.
After Adam's #FlintWaterCrisis town hall outburst drew got publicity, Baird met w/ him. He said he'd try to get MI to fund a "pilot program" for Adam's medical treatment & make it available to other residents if Adam improved. He did improve but it wasn't made available to others
We confirmed the state did pay for Adam's medical treatment---which Baird told Adam and his then-wife Christina not to disclose to anyone. But in discussions with other Flint residents, Baird falsely said he was paying for Adam's treatment "out of his own personal pocket"...
We discovered that Baird met with a Flint resident, Bruce Stiers, a longtime construction worker who had been carrying a corroded, water-ravaged pipe around town & to public town halls. Baird asked Bruce if he can borrow the pipe to "show experts."
Baird never gave it back...
Baird never gave it back...
Our reporting indicates MI AG @dananessel's team has had audio since September (& other info on Baird's alleged payoffs since July). They haven't pressed #Flintwatercrisis charges in 16 months on the job (Saturday is statute of limitations for felony misconduct in office charges)
