EPA spokeswoman Melissa Sullivan said Thursday it was “not unusual” for complex criminal cases to take years to move from initial investigations to filing of charges. Sullivan said that some statistics, such as a one-year rise from 107 to 133 in total number of defendants charged in criminal cases, were up in 2019. Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse compiled the records from Justice Department and EPA cases for fiscal year 2019, which ended in September. That’s up from 166 last year, the second year of the Trump administration, but otherwise the lowest since George H.W. The Justice Department filed 75 EPA prosecutions in fiscal year 2019.

Source: thestar November 21, 2019 18:56 UTC