Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 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.
Hellbound and Down 