RICHMOND, Va. (Legal Newsline) - The Virginia House and Senate seek to ban special interest groups from planting activist litigators in the state Attorney General's office.
Both chambers have revised their budget appropriations in a way that prohibits hiring of special assistant attorneys general (SAAG), such as ones funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) at the New York University School of Law.
HB30 directs that compensation paid to employees of the Office of the Attorney General for performing legal services on behalf of the Commonwealth will derive only by way of appropriation.
“All legal services of the Office of the Attorney General shall be performed exclusively by (i) an employee of the Office, (ii) an employee of another Virginia governmental entity as may be provided by law, (iii) an employee of a federal governmental entity pursuant to an agreement between the Office of the Attorney General and such federal governmental entity, or (iv) law students or recent law school graduates sponsored by a separate institution with a stipend,” the proposal states.
Bloomberg and his Family Foundation have donated $5.6 million to develop the SEEIC as a vehicle to place special assistants in state attorneys general offices to pursue climate litigation against Big Oil and transport companies.
The movement to keep special interests out of state AG offices has spread.
Like Virginia, the Minnesota state Senate has recently advanced a proposal that would prohibit the state AG's office from tapping into private resources such as Bloomberg's SAAG program, which AG Keith Ellison did prior to filing a climate change lawsuit in 2019.
The lead up to Minnesota's climate suit was highlighted in a Feb. 9 amicus brief filed by Energy Policy Advocates (EPA) in Exxon Mobile v City of San Francisco.
“Emails and text messages obtained by Amicus EPA show that, prior to that suit being filed, Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) Director Lee Wasserman emailed a Minnesota advocacy group’s director, a man named Michael Noble with Fresh Energy,” Energy Policy Advocates attorney Michael E. Lovins wrote in the brief.
“Wasserman attached pleadings which Wassermann suggested the activist review prior to 'making initial calls,' to familiarize himself with RFF’s desires — and Noble’s own newfound priority, for which his group 'only accepted a modest amount of money' at the outset because he did not 'want to launch any big effort unless' the AG was receptive. It is not yet clear how much money Fresh Energy then accepted once it became clear they had a receptive attorney general.”
The amicus brief further argues that RFF has long targeted Exxon Mobil for investigation and prosecution by recruiting elected attorneys general and underwriting supportive media campaigns.
In last week's 5-3 committee vote, Minnesota Senate’s State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee advanced SF 2818, which was authored by Sens. Mary Kiffmeyer (R), Warren Limmer (R), Jeff R. Howe (R), Mark W. Koran (R), and Andrew Mathews (R).
The proposed legislation requires that all work done in the attorney general’s office be performed by Minnesota state government employees or officials from the federal government under specific agreements.
Second, the bill requires that all compensation for officials in the attorney general’s office come from Minnesota taxpayers and not outside organizations.