FreedomWorks and Allied Conservative Groups Urge Congress to Investigate Ex-Mayor Bloomberg’s Financial Influence over State AG Offices

Washington, D.C. — Earlier today, FreedomWorks released a letter from three other conservative policy groups to call on members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to investigate the recent series of lawsuits and investigations from state attorneys general directed against American energy companies. The letter comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed last week by the office of the Acting New York Attorney General against ExxonMobil. The charges in question have been brought by activist lawyers working through nine state attorneys general plus the District of Columbia, funded by Ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Using New York University Law School’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, Mayor Bloomberg has been able to embed attorneys who are sympathetic to his environmentalist mission in nine Democratic-controlled state AG offices. Dubbed “Special Assistant Attorneys General” (SAAG), these individuals leverage the power of their office to advance progressive positions on clean energy, climate change, and other environmental policy matters while masquerading as law enforcement.

Patrick Hedger, FreedomWorks Director of Policy, Commented:

“Using taxpayers resources, Special Assistant Attorneys General operatives attempt to extract billions of dollars from American energy companies in the name of climate change. Though all attempts have been unsuccessful so far, the lawsuits and investigations brought by these operatives represent a major threat to American businesses, economic growth and job creation. Congress should exercise its federal oversight authority to investigate the misuse of taxpayer resources to subsidize state law enforcement in these Democratic state AG offices.”

FreedomWorks is calling on lawmakers to examine how outside money is shaping the prosecutorial actions of attorneys general offices, specifically:

• Why is the NYU Law Center working exclusively with Democrat AG offices?
• What is the role of the New York Attorney General’s office in soliciting and organizing a private funding stream from Mr. Bloomberg exclusively for Democrat attorneys general?
• Are the Special Assistant Attorneys General in question compliant with ethics standards designed to ensure that public officials make decisions about what cases to pursue based only on the merits and not based on political strings attached to private money from an outside source?
• Should states continue to receive substantial federal resources to subsidize their state law enforcement function if they are allowing Attorneys General office to be corrupted by outside political money?
• Using officers as private mercenaries to achieve policy results that otherwise would have been unattainable thorough legislation undermines the trust held between citizens and law enforcement.

Frontiers of Freedom, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, and Institute for Liberty joined the letter.