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Wins Publicity, Court Orders Virginia AG’s Office To Comply With Law Re Bloomberg Docs – Are You Satisfied With That?


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The 2018 lawsuit, which revealed previously denied memos, other emails, takes another important step

RICHMOND, VA (April 20, 2022) – Virginia citizen Christopher Horner and the free-market public policy team the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) won again yesterday in their case against Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.

The suit was filed in Circuit Court for the City of Richmond in November 2018, then drag outside through various maneuvers by the then-AG Mark Herring Office. It has sought to get to the bottom of the conflicting positions that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has taken regarding its attempt to bring into the Office one or more “Special Attorney Generals” (SAAGs) hired. private sector with salaries and benefits actually paid by a Center founded by billionaire climate activist Michael Bloomberg, to pursue issues of Mr. Bloomberg’s interest. The lawsuit also sought records relating to OAG’s review and determination of any ethical concerns in entering into an unprecedented, highly conflicting agreement to which OAG adopted, through Bloomberg’s “State Impact Center,” on September 15, 2017.

In a memo written that day, Herring’s Office pursued – then reached an agreement, all of in writing – bring one or more privately hired activist attorneys to the home to conduct an activist group’s bid, a pursuit that was dropped over the phone after the Office began receiving requests from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Correspondence and Joint Venture Memorandum.

As the original Petition detailed, the former Attorney General of Virginia applied for and was subsequently approved for a privately funded special counsel on climate and renewable energy, paid $81,500 per year as an employee of the Bloomberg “Center” established at New York University (NYU). This outfit was created with the aim of placing employees in OAGs committed to “advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental regulatory positions” that Mr. Bloomberg prefers.

During the discovery process, the plaintiffs have learned about the existence of a “Golden Decision Memorandum” explaining the plans for these “SAAGs,” which Herring’s Office has denied exists. In another FOIA lawsuit filed by Horner following this disclosure and having sought to bypass the hurdles in this first lawsuit, Herring’s office declared the privileged memo to be the “working paper” that the public can not see.

These revelations also played a role in the recent trial in the case decided yesterday. The office will have to confirm that the memo and other documents in a computer folder also revealed in the discovery exist and decide whether to ultimately turn over the memo and other records. no, or continue to sue but are now claiming this very limited privilege.

The petition also notes that as part of this application, but without citing any specifics, OAG has certified that it has the legal authority to engage Bloomberg-sponsored employees and does not any gift or impediment to professional responsibility. Not only does this contradict Virginia law and raise questions about ethical obligations for attorneys paid by non-clients, but OAG claims they have “no record” suggests that they have ever performed any such analysis, opinion, or conclusion on their legal claims.

Horner and CEI detailed the arrangement, and Virginia’s attempt to engage in such an extensive and elaborate campaign using the AG offices in collaboration with major contributors and stakeholders. groups that pressure activists to achieve a policy agenda have failed in the democratic process, in a recent report, “Lease Law Enforcement“And spacious source document appendices also available on ClimateLitigationWatch.org

Horner and CEI’s most recent win at least the third case to date where Virginia’s OAG has been defeated in a similar case. The former Attorney General insisted that he did not have the records to provide Mr. Horner and that CEI was initially denied at the recall stage. Instead, when asked to respond, the Attorney General filed the “Nulla Bona Petition,” in which the office again reiterated its position that there were no other records of the relationship. their relationship with NYU and the Bloomberg-funded Center. When the Court refuse Nulla Bona’s conviction, the Attorney General finally filed an answer, and the case went to trial. After the trial, the Court ordered the Attorney General to search and produce documents that they had long claimed did not exist.

Horner said “We look forward to the results of a proper search and hope the new Attorney General of Virginia will put an end to three and a half difficult years of how the state’s former top attorney made such a promise, and what What caused them to give up the effort after we started asking questions. Hopefully he will now turn over these public records that have been released since 2018”

Local attorney Graven W. Craig represented the parties, joined by Matt Hardin and Chris Horner vice versa.



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