LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An apologetic Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was largely silent last year when criminal charges were brought against state officials over Flint's man-made drinking water crisis, except to say some "bureaucrats" had failed residents and that he was focused on the city's recovery.

Now, with two of his own cabinet members facing unprecedented manslaughter or other charges related to a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak that some experts have linked to the municipal water, a more defiant Snyder is keeping them on the job and publicly and privately defending their names despite...