Democratic attorneys general in New York and Massachusetts refused Wednesday to comply with a congressional subpoena demanding they disclose information related to their investigation into ExxonMobil’s climate research.
New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Maura Healey, of Massachusetts, have vowed to deny GOP Texas Rep. Lamar Smith’s communications related to their probes. The Texas Republican has worked for several months forcing the AGs to be more forthcoming about their investigations.
“Congressional subpoenas are not immune from court review, and we are considering all of our legal options should the committee continue to proceed with these unprecedented subpoenas that seek clearly privileged and law enforcement protected information and communications,” a source at the New York attorney general’s office told reporters.
They were joined by a coalition of 15 other state attorneys general. AGs from California, Maryland, and others, asked Smith to rescind the subpoenas, arguing his “unprecedented subpoenas exceed your Committee’s constitutional authority” and “impermissibly intrudes on the lawful authority of the attorneys general to conduct investigations.”
California AG Xavier Becerra was among those requesting the Texas representative to lay off Schneiderman and Healey.
Environmentalists have pushed the newly-elected attorney general into joining the hit-parade against Exxon, a company activists say has hid knowledge about global warming from investors.
Journalists have had a field day blasting Exxon after a series of campaigns conducted by InsideClimate News (ICN) found the company had allegedly played fast and loose with information concerning global warming.
