Several Republican Attorney Generals are arguing that oligarch and radical leftist activist Michael Bloomberg is using his deep pockets to place a ton of lawyers into state offices with the intent of fighting oil companies and undermining President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.
The Daily Caller reported that “Bloomberg Philanthropies financed a group that is planting private attorneys into state attorneys general offices for the explicit purpose of pushing back against Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.”
“What’s problematic is the arrangement through which a private organization or individual can promote an overtly political agenda by paying the salaries of government employees,” Indiana Attorney General (AG) Curtis Hill told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hill cited a common criticism levied at New York University’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC).
Bloomberg’s philanthropy gave the center a cool $6 million grant.
According to NYU Law’s website, the NYU School of Law established the group in 2017 “to identify and hire NYU Law Fellows who serve as special assistant attorneys general in state attorney general offices, focusing on clean energy, climate and environmental matters.”
Republicans believe that Bloomberg, a reliable Democrat donor and presidential contender for the 2020 Democrat nomination, is weaponizing attorney general offices to advance his political agenda.
In a December 2019 report, SEEIC said that state attorneys general had carried out significant” actions since the beginning of the Trump administration in early 2017.
NYU’s website details that there are 18 SEEIC law fellows holding positions in 11 Democratic attorney general offices. Some of these include Washington, D.C., Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington
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Hill and others believe Bloomberg is pushing the limits on what is ethically acceptable. “And all of the government employees being compensated in this manner are lawyers working for Democratic attorneys general, according to NYU’s website. This whole scenario raises obvious ethical and legal concerns,” he stated.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also been a fierce critic of Bloomberg’s group. “The ethical problems with this scheme are obvious,” Paxton said in a December 2019 statement.
“Democratic state AG offices are taking on seasoned attorneys being paid by a radical liberal Democratic Presidential primary candidate,” he continued. Paxton then suggested that the special assistants “wield state police power” and are laying the groundwork for propagating Bloomberg’s climate agenda.
Republican Georgia AG Christopher Carr also expressed concerns about Bloomberg’s overreach.
“AG Carr has serious concerns about this program and the ability of these lawyers to represent a state in an unbiased manner,” Katie Byrd, a spokeswoman for Carr’s office, said. She added that Georgia doesn’t accept private money when employing such assistants. Other officials inside the Republican ecosphere want media to do more to flesh out Bloomberg’s work.
The Left never rests and liberty conservatives should recognize this.
Even under Republican dominated governments, leftist activists will look to subvert them from within by planting subversives inside the bureaucracy and the politician’s staff.
If we want our ideas to be implemented through the legislative process, we must always be on the lookout.
