Michigan Governor Snyder Preps For Prosecution

Never fear!

Rick Snyder has a PAC and a 501c3 to sucker money for his image repair campaign for what he believes to be formidable, unjust criminal charges, so I am sure it is only a matter of filing the paperwork to start funneling his dark money into a legal defense fund.

The great Frank Kelley has spoken.

One reason why Snyder's legal fees are so expensive, even before there are indictments, is because he knows he lied and then tried to monetize the situation while covering it up by throwing his cabinet folks under the bus with those darn Type III transfers and selling the emergency manager down the river.

I truly hope Flood and Arena go deep on him and look at state contracts, not just with construction, but also in human services.

Human service programs, particularly child welfare, are privatized, meaning that these programs are exempt and excluded from public scrutiny.

Oh, and by the way, where in the hell is Maura Corrigan?

Former AG Kelley: Snyder's outside legal fees too pricey

LANSING — The nation’s longest-serving state attorney general said Monday it was against the
policy of his office to pay for outside criminal attorneys for state officials and the $800,000 in criminal defense legal fees Gov. Rick Snyder is requesting in connection with the Flint drinking water crisis appear excessive.

"If I was you, I would say it is exorbitant," former Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley said in a telephone interview from Florida. "Why not? It is exorbitant."

Kelley, a Democrat, said that during his 37 years as attorney general, from late 1961 through 1998, if a state official was facing a criminal investigation for official actions, his office would provide legal assistance but would not approve funds for outside attorneys.

If a state official was charged with a crime, no state-funded legal representation would be provided unless the official was acquitted, Kelley said.

"A crime is against the people of the state, so you could not pay to defend the crime with the people's money," Kelley told the Free Press.

Snyder spokesman Ari Adler has said the Republican governor has not committed any crimes but needs the legal expertise of Warner Norcross & Judd because of ongoing investigations by the U.S. Attorney's office and the state Attorney General's office and because the firm's lawyers and paralegals have the ability to review and process massive amounts of records in the way the investigators want to receive them. Adler also defended a proposed $400,000 contract for civil defense work with Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker, saying the large volume of civil lawsuits filed in connection with the Flint water crisis is too much for the Attorney General's office to handle.

The two contracts, together worth up to $1.2 million, are up for approval today at the State Administrative Board, though Adler said Monday the approval appears to be a formality because the governor's office is exempt from a requirement that contracts worth $250,000 or more be submitted to the public body.

Kelley said there was one instance during his time in office when the state agreed to pay for criminal defense fees for a state official after the fact. Norman Berkowitz, a deputy in the Secretary of State’s  office, was indicted for mail fraud in 1979 in connection with a case involving an award for the design of a license plate but was later acquitted.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals when the city switched its drinking water supply to the Flint River from Lake Huron water supplied by Detroit. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures, sending unsafe levels of the toxic metal into an unknown number of Flint households. Officials are also investigating possible links between the Flint River water and outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease that are linked to nine deaths.

Looking nationally, Snyder’s request for the state to cover up to $1.2 million in legal fees for criminal and civil investigations into the Flint drinking water crisis is unusual but not unprecedented.

For example, Texas Gov. Rick Perry charged taxpayers $80,000 for criminal defense attorneys while he was being investigated in an abuse-of-power case related to his actions as governor, then switched to paying his lawyers from his campaign and political action committee funds after he was indicted in 2014.

Those legal fees eventually grew to about $2.5 million before all charges were dismissed against Perry related to allegations he used his budgetary veto power to try to coerce a state official to resign after a drunken-driving conviction, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Geary Reamey, a law professor at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, said even the $80,000 Perry charged to taxpayers was controversial.

"At the time, it was noted by people on both sides of the issue (that) if this was not unprecedented, it was certainly a very rare occurrence," Reamey said Monday. "Gov. Perrry was criticized."

Many interpret state law in Texas to say no public funds can be spent in defense of a criminal case against a public official that ends in a conviction, he said.

Looking at Snyder's bills, Reamey said that $800,000 is "a lot of money to spend to spend on defense at the investigation stage," and "what a lawyer can do at that period is somewhat limited."

In New Jersey, the law firm Gov. Chris Christie hired to handle investigations related to "Bridgegate" — allegations that his top aides blocked lanes to the busy George Washington Bridge as an act of revenge against a mayor who did not endorse him — cost taxpayers $7.3 million by September 2014, the New York Post reported.

Under Michigan state civil service rules, employees named in civil suits for actions arising out of their employment are entitled to legal representation at state expense.

The state "is not required to provide legal services at state expense in connection with prosecution of a criminal suit against an employee," the rules say.

Adler noted that while state-funded legal representation related to criminal investigations is not required, it is permitted.

Margaret Lynch, a retired Detroit special education teacher who lives in Royal Oak, said it's appalling that Snyder wants taxpayers to foot the bill for his legal fees.

"Michigan schools are suffering terribly, and he's going to make taxpayers, who need this money for their schools, for our children, pay for his defense," Lynch said. "It's just wrong."

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel said Monday that Democrats will try to strip at least $800,000 from Snyder's $5.6-million office budget unless the governor withdraws the requested legal contracts.

Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said in a telephone news conference that Snyder should raise money through a legal defense fund to cover the outside fees and not make taxpayers foot the bill. He called on Snyder to withdraw the contract approval requests and said the $800,00 in fees related to criminal investigations is "the most egregious part of this."

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©