“The Rockefeller Foundation Undermining Democracy Every Day of the Week
Guest post by Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News.
Guest post by Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News.
In December 2019, New York Attorney General Tish James and her highly-paid associates were thoroughly, completely, 100% humiliated in court when their case against Exxon Mobil, accusing the company of screwing shareholders by keeping secret knowledge they are toasting Mom Earth, was itself toast (see Judge Finds Exxon Not Guilty in Fraud Case – NY AG Humiliated).
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James had enough humiliation, and in January 2020, she announced she would not appeal the Exxon case to a higher court (see NY AG Gives Up on Trying to Shake Down Exxon After Court Decision). That is, NY had lost, Exxon had won. After years of litigation to get the AGs office to provide emails and other documentation, it has just come to light that the Rockefellers coordinated the effort and prompted the NY AG’s office to launch an investigation into ExxonMobil back in 2015.
The prosecution of Exxon for “Exxon Knew” began in 2015 during the reign of then-AG Eric Schniederman — a man who obsessively hated drillers and pipelines. Schniederman was exposed as a woman slapper who likes rough sex and promptly resigned in humiliation in 2018 (see Anti-Fossil Fuel NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Resigns!). James later replaced him after winning an election in November 2018 (taking office in January 2019).
Emails obtained by Government Accountability & Oversight after years of litigation reveal the politicization and weaponization of law enforcement by environmental activists, including the Rockefeller Foundation, to take down the American energy industry. The Rockefellers essentially provided a fill-in-the-blanks template lawsuit for the NY AG’s office to use, and goaded them into using it. Folks, this IS the smoking gun! We have them dead to rights.
The question now is, what will be done about it? Will there be lawsuits? Criminal indictiments? Will the Rockefellers and their “charities” lose their tax exemption? Is this unethical (likely illegal) collusion still going on?!
Our friends at Energy in Depth have the explosive expose:
Explosive new documents have exposed details of the Rockefellers’ coordinated effort to convince the New York Attorney General’s office (NYAG) to launch an investigation into ExxonMobil in 2015. As Fox News reports:
“Left-wing nonprofits quietly coordinated a first-of-its-kind investigation into Big Oil led by the New York State Attorney General (NYAG) years ago, sparking dozens of current climate lawsuits, according to newly disclosed internal communications.”
The emails, obtained by Government Accountability & Oversight after years of litigation, are a clear example of the politicization and weaponization of law enforcement by environmental activists to take down the American energy industry. The Rockefeller-funded activists have continued their campaign into the present day, targeting oil and gas companies through advocacy supporting lawsuits, divestment, export bans, appliance bans, and much, much more.
Correspondence logs first released in 2016 revealed that NYAG Eric Schneiderman’s aides and the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) emailed in early 2015 regarding “activities of specific companies regarding climate change.” The NYAG stonewalled the release of the emails themselves for nearly a decade, citing a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) “law enforcement” exemption – until now.
EID has discussed at length how the Rockefellers are the masterminds and top financiers behind the climate litigation campaign, but these new emails provide an in-depth look at the incredible level of influence the Rockefellers’ deployed to launch the very first climate lawsuit.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Rockefellers delivered NYAG’s failed lawsuit on a silver platter.
The NYAG’s lawsuit was born out of a strategy devised at a 2012 conference in La Jolla, California, where anti-oil and natural gas activists developed a playbook to replicate the success of the litigation against the tobacco industry. Part of that included finding a “sympathetic state attorney general” to subpoena documents. And they found their man in New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
In February 2015, RFF president Lee Wasserman set off to aggressively pursue the NYAG to investigate ExxonMobil. Looping in friends and allies, the activists presented the NYAG with everything needed to try and take down the company, including:
A “trove” of documents: Wasserman connected the NYAG with Kurt Davies – who at the time was with Climate Investigations Center and now is at the Center for Climate Integrity – and Greenpeace’s John Passacantando, who presented to NYAG staff a “trove of material” about “company X’s past efforts to obfuscate.”
A specific legal theory: In a meeting preview email, Wasserman laid out why he thought a probe into the company was necessary: “In our opinion, their work to confuse the public about the science has mismarked the value of their reserves, which supports their current stock valuations.”
After the meeting, Wasserman sent a memo to Schneiderman’s Chief of Staff explaining why the NYAG “should investigate” energy companies under the Martin Act, the state’s most powerful law that grants unilateral power to issue subpoenas to investigate suspected fraud.
(From Fox News)
Media air cover: Emails also reveal that RFF kept NYAG abreast of RFF-funded “#ExxonKnew” reporting, and likely shared specific details of the upcoming reporting with NYAG before they were made public, breaking the supposed impartiality of the fourth estate and providing the NYAG reassurance that their lawsuit would be boosted by a friendly news media. More on that in section 3.
Political interests outweighed “legitimate concerns” of staff NYAG.
Career attorneys from the NYAG’s office were suspicious from the start about the investigation. After reviewing Wasserman’s memo regarding use of the Martin Act with AG staff, Schneiderman’s Chief of Staff, Micah Lasher, indicated some attorneys had “legitimate skepticism” on the approach laid out in the memo:
“After our call I gathered our team and pressed them a bit on their views. I think there’s a mix of legitimate skepticism and insufficient exploration. I asked everyone to go back to the drawing board first thing Monday so we can have a more fully informed call at the end of the week.
Please know that I want to find a way on this as much as you do. What you may have heard from me today was a bit of vexed struggle as I balance needing all the help from thought partners as we can get with protecting the prerogatives of our office and the judgement of our attorneys.” (emphasis added)
A month later, Wasserman sent Lasher a second memo that explicitly addressed various concerns raised by NYAG attorneys, adjusted the scope of the investigation, and attempted to squash concerns about unwanted public scrutiny by keeping the investigation in the dark, until desired:
“Your staff is concerned that the fossil fuel companies might succeed in motions to quash subpoenas aimed at their spreading misinformation about climate change. This fear is misplaced.”
“Your office can reduce the chance of motions to quash ever being filed by sending out initial discovery requests without alerting the press. Martin Act investigations can be completely confidential, so if a case fails to materialize the inquiry can be abandoned without publicity.”
It’s worth reiterating that those career attorneys were ultimately proved right, as the New York case was resoundingly defeated and dismissed as “hyperbolic” – but not after millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted and abused.
Schneiderman Knew: the NYAG office was likely aware of the Rockefeller-funded “ExxonKnew” series – falsely portraying the “impetus” behind his investigation.
What better way to launch an investigation that was hand-delivered to you? With a timely news hook! Lucky for the NYAG office, the Rockefellers also provided this on a silver platter.
At the famous “AGs United for Clean Power” press conference, Al Gore and AG Schneiderman credit the 2015 Inside Climate News and Los Angeles Times “Exxon Knew” reporting for kicking off state investigations. But the new emails show that the NYAG was likely aware of the “Exxon Knew” reporting before two Rockefeller-funded “independent” reporting series on the matter kicked off – and long before their eventual publication in September and October 2015.
Before the February 2015 meeting where activists presented a “trove” of documents to NYAG staff, NYAG staff exchanged emails stating the upcoming meeting would cover the “big oil arctic exploration issue,” likely referring to the ExxonMobil arctic sea ice research program – a preview of the “bombshell” coverage that followed months later.
Fast-forward to September 2015: Inside Climate News published the first article in its “Exxon Knew” series, which was paid for by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) via six-figure grants to Inside climate News and its parent organization, Lost Light Projects.
Then, in October 2015, the Los Angeles Times wrote an expose on the arctic research program in the first of a series of articles published as part of a Columbia School of Journalism / Los Angeles Times joint effort. RFF granted the Columbia School of Journalism at least $200,000 in 2015 for the project and likely also funded the effort before 2015, but the organization’s historical tax records are incomplete.
As these articles were published, RFF’s Lee Wasserman maintained a steady cadence of correspondence with NYAG staff, flagging “Exxon Knew” reporting and ensuring that the ecosystem of donor-funded media amplified Schneiderman’s investigation within its echo chamber.
Are AGs in other states, like California, also acting at the bidding of environmental activists?
Months after issuing a subpoena to ExxonMobil in late 2015, a spokesperson for NYAG defended the office’s consultation with outside parties on the investigation in a statement to The New York Times:
“…speaking with outside experts is a routine part of the investigative process, and we make decisions based on the merits, period.”
Similarly, in a statement to Fox, Wasserman said:
“We have been transparent in noting communications with public officials…”
But despite the “routine” nature of the process and insistence on transparency, the NYAG fought tooth and nail for six years to keep its communications with billionaire funders and activists out of the public domain, even defying a congressional subpoena from House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in the process.
We now see why NYAG was dead-set on keeping the records sealed – and it begs the question, is this level of undue influence happening in other states and municipalities?
We already know that activist groups like the Center for Climate Integrity and the Rockefellers are working to push climate litigation both from the outside, using the press, and from within, pressuring elected officials like in cases such as Minnesota. But the level of activist influence and access welcomed by New York should set off alarm bells across the country, wherever climate lawsuits arise.
As Chris Horner, attorney representing Government Oversight & Accountability told Fox:
“[These documents put] the lie to claims that these suits are a series of unrelated, purely local actions: Every single ‘climate’ lawsuit has the DNA of this ‘Patient Zero’ case, weaponizing law enforcement against the ‘climate’ industry’s political opponents.” (emphasis added)
The question of the “DNA” should be immediately asked regarding California’s lawsuit and all other cases.
Bottom Line: The long-withheld NYAG emails reveal a concerted effort by left-wing environmental activists to weaponize state attorney general offices to take down American energy companies. Environmental activists did everything in their power – from presenting background materials, to crafting the case, to funding the journalists – while state elected officials bought the farce hook, line, and sinker. New York taxpayers and Americans everywhere should be wary of the sham lawfare that is the national climate litigation campaign.
Editor’s Comment: What this matter evidences, more than anything else and even more than the shameful conduct of the Rockefeller family, is the thorough undermining of our democracy by these moneyed tax-exempt foundations. They are doing virtually nothing that isn’t politics and they are doing it all in the guise of charities, which means they are, to the extent they re avoiding taxation while doing politics, also doing it on our dime. It’s the biggest of lies and the worst of corruption.
Worse, they are doing it mostly secretly and directly corrupting the operation of our democratic institutions. It is, in fact, the biggest untold story of all regarding the slow collapse of Western Civilization. It’s untold because tax-exemption is a boring subject, of course, but it’s at the heart of so much that is wrong today. It must be addressed and, until it is, we will live in a world where elites can keep doing exactly what they did in this case. Our civil society is crumbling and will soon be completely gone unless we end this corrupt activity.
#NewYork #AttorneyGeneral #Rockefellers #Lawfare #Democracy #Climate #Exxon