Ohio GOP Governor Mike DeWine could be held criminally liable for the “nuking” of East Palestine, Ohio, where a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, and DeWine made the decision to blow up a group of train cars, creating a massive chemical mushroom cloud.
One America News spoke with Ohio lawyer Scott Pullins about the possible criminal charges that could be faced by Governor Mike DeWine, after he made the unilateral decision to detonate five derailed train cars carrying lethal chemicals, creating a massive mushroom cloud over the town of East Palestine.
The appearance of the cloud has been compared to the explosion of nuclear weapons, and the potential chemical fallout from the disaster has been compared to a “mini-Chernobyl” situation, though DeWine and his fellow government officials have attempted to downplay the damage and health risks posed by the situation.
In the days following the East Palestine derailment and Mike DeWine-ordered detonation of derailed train cars, area residents, some accompanied by Trump-aligned US Senator JD Vance, have demonstrated the alarming contamination of the local environment and water supply.
Read More: East Palestine Residents, Senator Vance Demonstrate Water Pollution Near Derailment Site
“As you’ve seen, there’s a plume it looks like of toxic waste now going down the Ohio River, so it could affect a lot of us,” Pullins told OAN.
“It looks to us like Governor DeWine made the decision [to detonate the chemical-carrying train cars] unilaterally. He and his health director,” Pullins said.
“And for those of us who have been around for a while, that’s the same health director who is right now still using taxpayer dollars going around telling us to get boosted against COVID-19.”
“If you and I were in our backyards burning toxic waste in the atmosphere, not only would we be in jail cells, we’d probably lose our houses and our livelihoods,” Pullins said.
“He certainly could be [criminally charged],” he predicted but said that because of DeWine’s status as a public official, it could be more difficult to file charges against him.
“But if this turns out to be as big of a disaster as it looks like it could be, he very well could have some criminal, or at least some civil, liability,” said Pullins.
Watch the OAN segment below:
In addition to wreaking havoc on the community of East Palestine, Ohio, the Norfolk Southern train derailment is part of a wider pattern of chaos ripping through America’s infrastructure and industrial production sectors.
In the wake of the East Palestine derailment, multiple other trains carrying hazardous chemicals have derailed, a chemically-tainted facility in Florida has gone up in flames, and an epidemic of suspicious food plant fires has raged across the nation for more than a year.