Opinion | Michigan’s Banana Republic Prosecution

In January 2021, Ms. Hammoud introduced two misdemeanor prices in opposition to Mr. Snyder for willful neglect of responsibility, every punishable by as much as a yr in jail. Eight different public officers have been indicted. All pleaded not responsible.

We’ve beforehand reported that Ms. Hammoud seized paperwork from the state AG’s workplace associated to a civil lawsuit within the Flint case that have been protected by attorney-client privilege. When caught, she resisted hiring a “taint staff” to exclude privileged paperwork. She additionally did not observe authorized conventions that shield defendants’ due course of, because the state Supreme Court docket explains.

Prosecutors relied on a one-man “grand jury” that “thought of the proof not in a public courtroom however in secret, a Star Chamber comeback,” Chief Justice

Bridget Mary McCormack

writes. “The one-man grand jury then issued prices. To today, the defendants have no idea what proof the prosecution offered to persuade the grand jury (i.e., juror) to cost them.”

State regulation permits for one-person grand juries in choose circumstances involving public corruption however requires procedural safeguards. Ms. Hammoud’s one-man grand jury—a Genesee County decide—didn’t observe these guidelines. Mr. Snyder’s staff is submitting a movement to dismiss the costs primarily based on the ruling.

But Ms. Hammoud is unapologetic. “The Residents of Flint ought to know that these circumstances will not be over,” she stated in response to the authorized rebuke. Her

Moby Dick

pursuit of Mr. Snyder for what was a authorities failure, not a legal act, has set an terrible precedent which will come again to hang-out Democrats when Republicans subsequent take energy.