FLINT, MI -- Attorneys who have prosecuted and defended officials accused of wrongdoing related to the Flint water crisis have been paid more than $20 million, according to the most recent state government records.

Information requested by MLive-The Flint Journal from the office of Gov. Rick Snyder, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the state Department of Health and Human Services, and Attorney General Bill Schuette detail the spending on both criminal and civil cases.

Schuette has spent $6.2 million on the prosecution of 15 current and former state and city employees, four of whom have reached plea agreements and rest of whom have yet to complete preliminary examinations in Genesee District Court.

Snyder's office has spent $5.2 million with two law firms -- Warner, Norcross & Judd LLP and Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker -- to defend the executive office.

The DEQ's spending for civil and criminal attorneys related to Flint water to date tops $5.5 million, and DHHS has spent an additional $3.3 million so far for both criminal and civil attorneys tied to the water crisis.

The $20.3 million total does not include the cost of providing attorneys for former emergency mangers appointed by Snyder to run Flint during its financial emergency or for other city employees, like former Department of Public Works director Howard Croft, who faces involuntary manslaughter and other charges.

Responsibility for those emergency manager and former city employee legal charges have been the subject of negotiations between the city and the state for months and were in excess of $900,000 more than three months ago.

State Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said the rising cost to taxpayers of attorney bills for government workers isn't fair.

"It says a lot about what they think of the citizens of Flint that the taxpayers they harmed are now paying for their expensive defense lawyers," Ananich said in a statement to The Journal. "The only justice seems to be for those who committed the crimes."

Among those accused of civil or criminal wrongdoing related to the crisis, the most expensive defenses have been paid by state taxpayers for DEQ District Supervisor Stephen Busch ($1.2 million), former DEQ director Dan Wyant ($1.02 million), former DEQ public information officer Brad Wurfeul ($941,691), DHHS Director Nick Lyon ($806,426), and Liane Shekter-Smith, former director of the DEQ Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance ($669,992).

Busch, Lyon, and Shekter-Smith are among those in the midst of their preliminary examinations.

Croft and former emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose aren't scheduled to being their exams until at least next month.

In addition to the state funding their civil and criminal defenses, state employees who are facing Flint water charges have been granted paid leaves while their cases unwind.

Lyon and Wells are the only two state employees to remain on the job despite facing charges that include involvuntary manslaughter.

Lyon's case is the next that is scheduled to resume on Friday, Jan. 19, before Judge David Goggins.