DETROIT – Darnell Earley has been issued a subpoena to testify before congress over the Flint water crisis.
The House Oversight Committee issued the subpoena Tuesday night for the former emergency manager of Flint to testify Wednesday morning.
"At 6 p.m. tonight after off-and-on discussions, they issued a subpoena, failed to serve him, demanding in that subpoena that he appear at 9 a.m.," A. Scott Bolden, attorney for Earley, told Local 4. "They sent it to me, when they knew that I was not authorized nor would I accept service to that subpoena because it would be impossible to get Mr. Earley to Washington in less than 24 hours. It’s just physically impossible and yet that is the demand that the committee put on Mr. Earley and me.
Earley had been invited to testify along with several other Michigan officials, but had refused. He had served as the emergency manager in Flint from Sept. 2013 to Jan. 2015.
"On Jan. 29 the committee by choice issued a letter of invitation for him to appear," Bolden said. "He just retained council yesterday and today he declined because we simply didn’t have enough time to prepare for the hearing, especially since the committee indicated it wanted to get to the truth and get to the facts. We indicated to the committee that we could not appear but we would be willing to discuss alternative dates and they refused to discuss alternative dates."
Four other officials were invited to testify before the "Committee to Examine the Flint, Mich. Water Crisis." Included are:
- Mr. Joel Beauvais, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Mr. Miguel Del Toral, Researcher, Region 5 Water Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Mr. Marc Edwards, Charles P. Lundsford Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Insititute and State University
- Mr. Keith Creagh, Director, Department of Environmental Quality, State of Michigan
"It would be impossible for him to honor that subpoena because of travel and because of preparation and because he just retained his council," Bolden said. "It is completely unreasonable to put that type of demand on him and that subpoena that was issued is completely unenforceable."
Tuesday morning, Earley announced that he would resign as the Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manger on Feb. 29.
READ: Detroit Public Schools EM Darnell Earley resigns from position
"Mr. Earley wants to tell his story," Bolden said. "He wants to assist the committee in finding the truth and getting the facts out on what happened in Flint in the water situation, but he can’t do that under these circumstances."