Chris White Tech Reporter July 08, 2020 3:09 PM ET
A Virginia-based law firm is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for access to records revealing his use of attorneys financed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to engage in a climate crusade targeting oil companies.
The nonprofit Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed a lawsuit Wednesday for records detailing how the Democratic attorney general is allegedly deploying Bloomberg-financed lawyers to advance a lawsuit his office leveled against the fossil fuel industry. The firm’s complaint was filed on behalf of the nonprofit group Energy Policy Advocates.
This is the second lawsuit that GAO, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit launched in 2018, has filed against Ellison in the last two years. (RELATED: Emails Reveal Role Michael Bloomberg’s Climate Crusaders Are Playing In Maryland’s AG Office)
The law firm’s complaint also reveals that the Minnesota attorney general entered into confidentiality agreements and so-called common interest agreements requiring his office to obtain the consent of the private attorneys before releasing public information about such climate lawsuits.
GAO attorney Chris Horner believes such contracts undermine open records laws and violate obligations of attorneys general to taxpayers.
“They likely are void as against public policy including that underlining open records laws, and probably violate obligations of state attorney generals to the people of their states by purporting to contract away the public’s right to access to public information such as is embodied in the MGDPA,” Horner staid in a statement Wednesday.
The agreements cover records related to lawsuits two Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAGs) inside Ellison’s office leveled against ExxonMobil. Ellison announced lawsuits targeting Exxon, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over what he calls “a campaign of deception” on climate change.
SAAGs are placed in attorney general offices around the country by New York University’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC), which received $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2018.
The NYU School of Law launched the group in 2017 to “identify and hire NYU Law Fellows who serve as special assistant attorneys general in state attorney general offices, focusing on clean energy, climate and environmental matters,” according to the NYU Law website.
Ellison submitted an application for SAAGs in March 2019, according to the GAO lawsuit.
He expressed in the application a willingness to do more in certain areas of “known public interest to Bloomberg and his SEEIC,” the complaint stated. Ellison’s application also suggested the attorney general intends on focusing on “multistate initiatives…including…supporting state-led efforts to investigate Exxon Mobil [sic].”
Neither Bloomberg nor Ellison’s office have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requestS for comment about the lawsuit.
“Ellison announced lawsuits targeting Exxon, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over what he calls a campaign of deception on climate change.
What kind of deception?
https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/06/23/exxon-knew/
It’s called “Lying”…. it’s what Democrats do.
“A Lie can travel half-way around the world while the truth is still getting its boots on.”
Democrats subscribe to the Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic religious (“ethical”) philosophy.
AG Ellison and his mob associates should be honest for this really is, the psychological projection of a campaign of deception on climate change that’s being perpetuated on the public by AGW promoters. Don’t forget that one critical element of that deception is the disinformation about skeptic climate scientists being “on the payroll of Big Oil.”
“Accusation Implodes in MN Global Warming Lawsuit”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/27/accusation-implodes-in-mn-global-warming-lawsuit/
IMHO opinion based on a lot of background research, Keith Ellison is one of the George Soros sponsored AGs associated with the peculiar alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood and the far left marxists trying to ruin the USA and Ellison’s as crooked as dog’s hind leg. These law suits are just a form of extortion.
One thing not a matter of opinion – and I agree with you BTW – is that both Ellison and his son are supporters of Antifa.
I do not understand how (as a brit) American folk are happy with the concept of private prosecutors, paid by a 3rd party, taking citizens to court using all the power of the state.
Right, what are these blatantly political stooges doing the state attorney general’s offices?
Why, they’re finger lickin’ good.
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It does get out of hand often, but these “civil” suits are intended to level the playing field, so that justice is achieved by the rule of law. It always helps to have money, but ironically in this case that’s really the target.
Curious where you got the idea that “American fold are happy with the concept.” These agreements are not advertised because they are illegal and American folk are not happy with the concept.
“democracy is aborted in darkness” h/t WaPo
democracy insures darkness after the first election!
Americans aren’t. Progressives are.
Steve Richards: We are happy with it only, and I mean ONLY, when it’s used for the MOST righteous of causes. Saving the planet. Defending nature from humans. Oh, and attacking republicans. It’s very limited, only used by half of major political parties in U.S.
I totally agree. These are foreign party country crippling lawsuits.
The US ‘legal’ system has become almost 100% political.
Democrats are the party that supported the super big money settlements and jury, trials. They picked liberal judges who all have their hot button agendas..
… and hence use the legal system for political goals and to make a pile of money for lawyers and judges.
Bypassing checks and balances which are not working now either.
The settlements in the US have become political …. and company killing large…
It is almost like a mob has taken over the US legal system. The start of multi billion dollar, company killing, settlements is an indication … of a country killing legal system problem (like a dangerous virus) that is going to be very difficult to undo.
An aside, China does not have environmental protestors or any internal legal issues.
‘Land Claims’ is the new Left Wing, Tom Seyer, super weapon to destroy the US… …
And by making it impossible to construct any pipeline that must cross contested land.
https://nonperele.com/joe-biden-enlists-clinton-obama-loyalist-tom-steyer-to-advise-on-climate-change/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/09/supreme-court-allows-native-american-jurisdiction-half-oklahoma/3208778001/
Comment:
Scientifically it is a fact that, there are no indigenous people in the US or in any country.
Every person on the planet is out of Africa, 70,000 years ago, which is a blink in evolutionary time.
There was extreme long term cold climate change event, 70,000 years, which killed all but a few thousand of our species. Those remaining were all living in a small region of Africa.
There are no ‘races’, based any scientific review of genetic variation considering the tiny amount of common genetic code is actual there for an ‘ethnicity’.
Compared to that from person to person with any ethnicity.
The large genetic variation from person to person, makes sense (and is absolutely necessary) from an evolutionary standpoint.
This great person to person genetic variation enables us to evolve to handle changes to the environment.
Each skin ‘color’ group has the full set of possible genetic variations for our species….
There are many times more, genic variation from person to person, which explains why there are specific medical issues, for people that have specific genetic variation.
It’s not a crusade, it’s an adventure in social justice. That said, does the AG, as the chief law enforcement officer and legal advisor, approve methods and protocols of law enforcement? Ellison? Ellison? Ellison?
These slimeballs have no conception of the word “shame”.
It’s past time skeptics (and Conservatives) start fighting back instead of allowing the Marxists free rein.
+42
“Democratic attorney general”
Shouldn’t that be “Democrat”, not “Democratic”?
Moshe? Moshe?
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In other legal news…
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/07/09/stanford-prof-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-after-dropping-10-million-defamation-case-against-another-scientist/
“A Stanford professor who sued a critic and a scientific journal for $10 million — then dropped the suit — has been ordered to pay the defendants’ legal fees based on a statute ‘designed to provide for early dismissal of meritless lawsuits filed against people for the exercise of First Amendment rights.'”
In case any of you heard a giant gasp, it came from State College PA.
This bozo went through some type of program where he received his BA, BS, & MS all in 1988. He was entrenched in the all political crap that the worst of Stanford creates … (his mentor/advisor claims to have been THE one to come up with the phrase/concept of nuclear winter … the ‘politics over everything else concept’ seem to have rubbed off on him … 40% of his life, spent at Stanford before getting his PhD, ll years in of the Stanford Erlich Bubble).
He claims that “nuclear power results in up to 25 times more carbon emissions per unit energy than wind energy”. With crap like that it is just too bad that they didn’t get to go court to determine his credibility.
Isn’t that where they dropkick hockey sticks through uprights so unrighteously crooked they could hide in a circular staircase?
“What is going on here?”
H/t to Plum, & Richard.
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Keith Ellison is a particularly acute case of ideologically induced mindlessness.
There he is, a huckster of black American grievance, and so to show his rejection of American culture, Keith converts to Islam — the only religion that grants itself a divine right to take and keep slaves. Including sex-slaves.
In the middle east, Muslim states specialized in castrated young African boys; those who survived the trek across the Sahara. But that apparently doesn’t bother Keith.
There’s Keith Ellison for you. An emptyheaded political poseur, who claims a right to enslave others now, while criticizing the ancestral enslavement of his past. Great ethical consistency there.
Bet he can’t wait til some people are forced to call him master. It’ll never happen, Keith.
How many other Attorneys General participated in this RICO scheme?
Pay up Mini, some Maxi damages.
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This is why they have to go along and go all in on the protest theme(s).
They can only change the plot so many times before it bubbles out and they have to face the consequences.
What happens when a societal Ponzi scheme fails in a two party system? Can a societal Ponzi scheme fail in a two party system?
“Neither Bloomberg nor Ellison’s office have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requestS for comment…”
Let me take a stab at writing Bloomberg’s response for them:
“Bloomberg Philanthropies, as a not-for-profit philanthropic organization, donated 6 million dollars to the NYU Law School to help fund a program that furthers the education of NYU Law Fellows, by hiring them to serve in the offices of State Attorneys General, working in the area of Environmental Law. What these Law Fellows do while in the service of the various State Attorneys General, is beyond the control of Bloomberg Philanthropies [wink, wink, nudge, nudge].”
The NYU Law School Response:
“The Law School of New York University is always striving to increase the value of the education obtained at NYU. The Law School received a 6 million dollar donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies to provide the salaries of NYU Law Fellows while furthering their education by serving in the offices of various State Attorneys General, in the area of environmental law. What these Law Fellows do while in the service of the various State Attorneys General, is beyond the control of the NYU Law School [wink, wink, nudge, nudge].”
Of course the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” part is that these Law Fellows better be used to develop state lawsuits that will harass the oil companies.