Welcome to Massachusetts: the best justice system money can buy. And in Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, they mean that literally.
Right now, there are two lawyers working in Healy’s office as “Special Assistant Attorneys General,” with all the power that confers. But they’re not working for we, the people.
Instead, their employer — the guy who writes their paychecks — is a private citizen. And his name is Michael Bloomberg.
They’re working cases in Boston, but they’re getting paid out of New York City.
What the what, you ask?
It’s called the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center and since 2017, they’ve been putting private attorneys, paid for with private, green-activist dollars, inside Democrat-controlled state attorneys general offices around the country.
Their stated goal is “advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions.”
Michael Bloomberg started the project with a $6 million check and — shocker! — these lawyers are using our public AG’s office to promote Bloomberg’s green political agenda. How is that legal, you ask? Welcome to Massachusetts.
For months, Chris Horner of Energy Policy Advocates has been trying to get Healey to release documents about her office’s relationship with Bloomberg’s group.
He also wants to know about emails Healey admits having — but won’t release — between her office and infamous plaintiff’s attorney Matt Pawa.
Pawa has made no secret of his desire to extract billions from ExxonMobil and other energy companies the same way lawyers got rich off the $200 billion Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998.
Why is he talking to Healey?
Healey’s office gave me this: “These documents are exempt under the Public Records Law due to an ongoing investigation and pending litigation.”
And so the public interest law firm Government Accountability & Oversight filed suit in Suffolk County Superior Court Monday on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates, asking the courts to force Healey to disclose the details of this “private attorney/public powers” arrangement.
In an interesting twist, Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office is also named in the lawsuit over its alleged role in the document cover-up.
As Horner told me Monday, “Massachusetts has terrible politics, but great laws.” And one of those laws lets Galvin’s Supervisor of Records review public records request denials.
So when Healey refused to disclose the requested documents claiming it would endanger ongoing litigation, Horner went to the Rebecca Murray, the Supervisor of Records.
Murray ruled on April 8 that there was no reason the AG’s office couldn’t at least release redacted copies of the emails.
Then, just two days later — and after much backchannel conversation between the AG and Secretary of State’s office — Murray suddenly overruled herself and, without any explanation, backed Healey’s play.
Massachusetts is one of just nine states where Bloomberg and his green-activist allies are buying their way into the prosecutors’ office.
In Virginia, the state legislature shut it down. In Oregon, a legislative analysis found “this arrangement does not comply with” Oregon laws.
And in Massachusetts? Nothing. Radio silence. No complaint from Common Cause, no criticism from the legislators who are supposed to check and balance officials like Healey.
Why? Because they’re all on the same team. They share Healey’s climate agenda.
But imagine for a moment a pro-life attorney general with lawyers funded by the Catholic Church? Or a pro-Second-Amendment AG with two NRA-funded lawyers in the office.
Would Common Cause still be silent? Would the Boston Globe-Democrat shrug off the story? Yeah, right.
Whatever happened to good government liberalism, you ask? It died out before Joe Biden got his hair plugs.
Today’s progressives believe the only good government is a liberal government. And so they’re prepared to seize power however they can, and whatever the cost.
Especially when Mike Bloomberg is picking up the check.
Read more at Boston Herald
Well this way they can bypass the FOI requests and be a direct pipeline to their bag man . What the hell was she thinking ?
If the police force hired mafia lawyers would that be cool in Massachusetts too ?
Hasta la vista sweet chicken face .