“The FBI’s involvement is an additional complication for Duggan”
DETROIT — In a shocking development, the FBI is now investigating Mike Duggan’s dirty dirt scandal, according to new reporting from the Detroit Free Press. The growing scandal has enveloped Duggan’s gubernatorial campaign and raised serious questions about his mismanagement that allowed cancer-causing chemicals to be spread across Detroit.
Testing has shown that the dirt Duggan used to backfill sites across Detroit is rife with lead, arsenic, and other harmful contaminants that pose serious cancer risks. The problem has grown substantially—with the Detroit Metro Times reporting this week that the number of sites needing testing has grown to more than 650 and officials have requested a 350% budget increase for testing, from $1 million to $4.5 million.
In 2015, Duggan promised that he was making it “very difficult” to bring in soil “unless we were confident where it came from.” But Duggan failed, and by the end of 2025, several investigations have been launched and experts have questioned his management of the situation, with a former state regulator describing it as “mismanagement.”
Taxpayers are now on the hook for a multi-million dollar clean-up at hundreds of sites across Detroit, and journalist Tom Perkins noted that Duggan was now “skating out of town, leaving these pits full of toxic waste next to people.” After Duggan left office, the new city administration installed stricter safeguards and strengthened contract language for dirt contractors, something Duggan never did.
On Monday, the Michigan Democratic Party launched billboards across Detroit and a digital ad campaign calling out Duggan for leaving “toxic waste pits” filled with cancer-causing chemicals across the city.
This isn’t the first time Duggan has been racked by an FBI investigation—in 2022, Duggan outed a confidential FBI informant while undermining a federal investigation.
“Mike Duggan is once again caught up in a major corruption scandal and he’s failed the people of Detroit by allowing cancer-causing dirt to be dumped across the city. Duggan failed to keep people safe and now even the FBI is investigating his growing scandal,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Derrick Honeyman. “It’s clear that Mike Duggan can’t be trusted to lead Michigan, and he owes the people of Detroit answers and an apology for this toxic and cancerous mess that he’s left behind.”
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