Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office received email in Greek from consultant to shield it from the public: lawsuit

Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s office received a coded email related to her administration’s response to a local water crisis in an apparent attempt to hide the sensitive communication from the public, a lawsuit alleges. 

The email was disguised in Greek alphabet font and sent by Andrew Leavitt, a consultant to Michigan’s energy department, to Whitmer’s senior energy adviser Kara Cook in September of 2021, according to a class action lawsuit filed.

“Hot off the presses. As I warned there are some major red flags. It seems like we are back at square one having not learned from Flint,” reads Leavitt’s decoded email, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday after a June court filing in the case. 

Leavitt served as a consultant for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The use of the Greek language and alphabet “appears to be calculated to conceal the statements,” the court filing states, noting that Leavitt “prefaced his grave concerns about the water crises with a reference back to his prior warnings and the State and City Defendants’ failure to learn from the Flint tragedy.“

Since the email was written in Greek, it would not have been included in public records requests for government communications containing words such as “Flint” or “red flags.”

Michigan’s public records department cannot electronically search for material written using the Greek alphabet, the Washington Free Beacon reported. 

Leavitt’s coded email only came to light in the discovery phase of the class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by Benton Harbor, Michigan, residents against Whitmer, the state of Michigan, the city, and others.  

The plaintiffs in the case argue that “despite having clear information that there were increasing levels of lead in Benton Harbor’s municipal water, State and City Defendants lied to residents that the tap water was safe and recommended remediation measures that they knew were ineffective.” 

The lawsuit was filed in November 2021, on the same day that a federal judge approved a $626 million settlement for victims of the infamous lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Whitmer claimed earlier this year that she has “always supported enhanced transparency when it comes to the government” but has thus far refused to use her executive powers to reverse a policy that exempts her office from Freedom of Information Act requests. 

The 52-year-old governor was sworn in for a second term in January after winning her re-election race in November.