{"id":2015891,"date":"2023-08-29T17:52:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T21:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whitmer-administration-used-calculated-scheme-to-hide-sensitive-email-from-the-public-lawsuit-says\/"},"modified":"2023-08-29T17:54:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T21:54:52","slug":"whitmer-administration-used-calculated-scheme-to-hide-sensitive-email-from-the-public-lawsuit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whitmer-administration-used-calculated-scheme-to-hide-sensitive-email-from-the-public-lawsuit-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit alleges Whitmer Administration concealed sensitive email through a &#8216;calculated&#8217; scheme."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhitmer-administration-used-calculated-scheme-to-hide-sensitive-email-from-the-public-lawsuit-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2015891&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<p><h2>Michigan governor pledged to bring transparency to\u200d Great\u2062 Lakes State<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<p>      Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer \/ Getty Images<br \/>\n  \u2064<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A consultant for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D.,\u200b Mich.) used a \u2062coded message in\u200c a &#8220;calculated&#8221; effort to &#8220;conceal&#8221; from the public record sensitive communications regarding the administration&#8217;s \u200cresponse \u200dto a local water crisis in Michigan, according to\u2062 a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan energy department consultant Andy Leavitt in September 2021 emailed a top adviser to Whitmer to express &#8220;some major red flags&#8221; with the\u200c administration&#8217;s response to a lead water crisis in southwestern Michigan, which Leavitt compared to a similar\u200c crisis in Flint, Michigan. But Leavitt&#8217;s initial message was not\u2064 written in\u2062 English\u2014the consultant \u2064used letters in the Greek alphabet \u200cin place of English \u200bones, a move that \u2062&#8221;appears to be calculated to conceal the statements,&#8221; a <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Plaintiffs-Objections-To-The-Magistrate-Judges-Report-and-Recommendations-6.15.23-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June court filing<\/a> \u2062 in a class\u2063 action suit\u2062 against Whitmer&#8217;s government \u2063argues. Leavitt&#8217;s use of Greek letters means his email would\u200b have been excluded from any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-commuting-his-sentence-ca-gov-newsom-reverses-parole-for-convicted-double-murderer\/\" title=\"After Commuting His Sentence, CA Gov. Newsom Reverses Parole For Convicted Double Murderer\">public records request<\/a> for government\u2064 communications that\u200c contain\u2064 the word &#8220;Flint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The apparent scheme to hide sensitive conversations from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/website-will-allow-parents-and-teachers-to-expose-classroom-radicalism\/\" title=\"Website Will Allow Parents and Teachers to Expose Classroom Radicalism\">public records requests<\/a> \u2064comes years after\u200b Whitmer\u200c promised to \u2063bring transparency to\u200b the \u200dGreat Lakes\u2064 State as governor. In Michigan, the governor&#8217;s office is not subject to the \u2062Freedom of Information Act, a policy \u200dthat Whitmer promised\u2064 to\u200c reverse during her \u20642018 campaign. &#8220;Michiganders should \u200dknow when and what their\u2064 governor is working on,&#8221; the Democrat said at the\u2062 time.<\/p>\n<p>But Whitmer has not \u200breversed the policy. Her office is still \u200dexempt from public records\u2062 requests \u200dyears after she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/michigan-government\/michigan-gov-whitmer-pledged-transparency-now-she-defends-secret-deals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promised to issue<\/a> an executive \u2064order that would subject her office to such requests. The Democrat during her first term \u2064also defended severance payments and confidentiality \u2062agreements \u2064with former employees, which Republicans characterized as &#8220;hush \u2062money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Neither Whitmer nor Leavitt\u2064 returned requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Leavitt&#8217;s 2021 coded message discusses the lead water\u200c crisis in Benton \u200dHarbor, a small town in southwestern Michigan. The town&#8217;s water system \u2064for years exceeded \u200dfederal standards for \u200blead contamination, prompting a group of residents\u200d in November 2021 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/2021\/11\/12\/benton-harbor-water-lawsuit-gretchen-whitmer\/6359630001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sue Whitmer<\/a> over \u2063her government&#8217;s &#8220;deliberate \u2064indifference&#8221; to addressing the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>One month before the residents filed their suit, Leavitt\u2014a partner at a Michigan strategic consulting firm who was advising Whitmer&#8217;s energy department\u2014emailed Whitmer \u2063senior adviser Kara Cook to express his concern over the administration&#8217;s &#8220;not acceptable&#8221; warnings to Benton \u200bHarbor residents. Leavitt&#8217;s top-line assessment \u2064of\u200c the warnings, however, was written using the Greek alphabet. Changing Leavitt&#8217;s font \u2062to standard English\u2063 reveals the following message: &#8220;Hot \u200doff \u200cthe presses. \u2063As I warned\u2062 there are some major red flags. It \u200bseems like we are back\u2064 at square one having not learned \u200dfrom Flint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the\u2064 lawsuit eventually led to the discovery of \u2063Leavitt&#8217;s\u2063 message, the email likely \u200bwould have remained\u2064 hidden from \u2064the public if Whitmer&#8217;s administration had not\u2064 faced \u200clegal action. That&#8217;s because Michigan&#8217;s public records department is\u200b unable to\u2063 electronically search \u200cfor records that \u200buse Greek letters, government correspondence obtained by the <em>Washington\u2063 Free Beacon<\/em> shows.\u2064 As a \u200cresult, even if a concerned citizen or political group caught \u2062wind of the tactic and requested energy department communications that use certain Greek letters, Michigan&#8217;s government would have been \u2062unable to provide them without\u2063 searching for\u2062 the\u2062 letters manually, an\u2062 extremely expensive process that\u2063 can take years.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whitmer-administration-used-calculated-scheme-to-hide-sensitive-email-from-the-public-lawsuit-says\/\" title=\"Lawsuit alleges Whitmer Administration concealed sensitive email through a 'calculated' scheme.\">veteran public records researcher told<\/a> \u2062the \u200c <em>Free Beacon<\/em> he had never seen government officials use foreign alphabets to convey sensitive messages.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u200c haven&#8217;t seen it \u2064before, but \u200bit doesn&#8217;t surprise me,&#8221; the researcher said. &#8220;Agencies play games to fight requests all the \u200ctime. If they&#8217;re doing it here, \u2062where else are they doing it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Whitmer secured\u2064 reelection in November, and\u200d the Democrat&#8217;s second term comes as her party\u2062 controls both chambers \u200bof the state legislature for the first time in nearly four decades. Still,\u200b it&#8217;s unclear if Whitmer and her legislative allies \u2062will pass \u2064ethics\u2062 reform laws\u2063 to make Michigan \u200dmore transparent. Only Republicans\u200b have introduced\u200c such legislation as of May, \u200band Whitmer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/detroit\/2023\/05\/26\/foia-friday-whitmer-transparency-reform-michigan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refused<\/a> to give <em>Axios<\/em> a direct answer\u200d when asked if \u200cshe would subject \u200bher office to\u2064 public records\u2062 requests via executive order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer promised to increase transparency in the state. However, a consultant for her administration allegedly used a coded message to hide sensitive communications related to a local water crisis. This deliberate attempt to conceal information from the public record has raised concerns about the administration&#8217;s response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":2015892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2015891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2015891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2015892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2015891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2015891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2015891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}