Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R), who is currently being sued for his role in the Flint water scandal, has been named a Harvard fellow.
Harvard announced that Snyder, who left office in 2019, was slated to begin working as a senior research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government on July 1.
“Governor Snyder brings his significant expertise in management, public policy, and promoting civility to Harvard Kennedy School,” Jeffrey Liebman, the director of the Taubman Center, said in the announcement. “We are excited that he will be joining the Taubman Center and confident that he will bring tremendous value to us and our students.”
When he was governor, Snyder appointed the state officials who switched Flint’s water source to the Flint river as a cost-saving measure in 2014. The change resulted in dangerously high levels of lead in the city’s tap water.
Snyder apologized in 2016 for the crisis and has claimed he wasn’t aware of the risks associated with switching Flint’s water supply, but the former governor was named a defendant in a massive civil lawsuit claiming that he and his administration had tried to cover up their role in the crisis. In early June, prosecutors seized the mobile devices Snyder had used while he was in office.
15 former or current local Michigan officials have been criminally charged for their connections to the crisis.
H/t the Associated Press.
