ST. PAUL, Minn. (Legal Newsline) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is being pushed for information on the two assistants he hired that are paid not by taxpayers but by climate change activist Michael Bloomberg.
It’s the latest in a string of efforts by Energy Policy Advocates to obtain communications regarding special assistant attorneys general placed in AG’s offices around the country.
These SAAGs are paid through New York University School of Law by Bloomberg Philanthropies, into which the former presidential candidate and mayor of New York City put $5.6 million. They are placed in AG offices to pursue a campaign that often includes suing Exxon for making allegedly misleading statements about global warming – an argument that was decimated by a New York state judge last year.
Ellison sued in June after a group called Fresh Energy claimed to have “helped put this idea in front of Attorney General Keith Ellison shortly after he was sworn in.”
In March 2019, Ellison had asked the Bloomberg program for help “supporting state-led efforts to investigate Exxon Mobil” through the use of one or more of Bloomberg’s SAAGs.
His way came SAAGs Peter Surdo and Leigh Currie. Ellison recommended they be paid by Bloomberg between $96,000 and $130,000 per year.
Energy Policy Advocates has made several requests for information on the two and not received the records it feels it is entitled to. Ellison’s office has instead claimed they are attorney-client privileged or work-product privileged.
The group has also sued the AGs of Michigan, Vermont and Washington, with another effort against New York.
One goal of Energy Policy Advocates is to chronicle the coordination among private lawyers working on contingency fees, advocates and state officials.
New York took two of the Bloomberg lawyers. When then-AG Barbara Underwood filed the lawsuit against Exxon, one of those attorneys signed the complaint.
This resulted in Government Justice Center, Inc., of Albany filing an ethics complaint with the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Named were Underwood and special assistant attorneys general Matthew Eisenson and Gavin McCabe.
“(S)pecial assistant attorneys general ultimately paid by billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are engaged in specious litigation against fossil-fuel companies on behalf of New York,” the complaint says.
Exxon has argued the Bloomberg programs create a financial incentive for state AGs to prioritize investigations in line with his agenda.