While he has Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Scott Pruitt chaired the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA). RAGA also has a policy arm called Rule of Law Defense Fund “RLDF”.
The “Rule of Law Defense Fund” appears to be helping Republican Attorneys General violate public record-keeping laws. RAGA and RLDF routinely ask big money donors to provide policy documents, and these documents are then shared with the AGs via an offsite document folder on box.com.
The Intercept has the scoop:
Records show RLDF held at least seven policy conference calls with senior officials in attorneys general’s offices between June and November. Emails about four of the calls mentioned the Briefing Room. MapLight and The Intercept found references to RLDF policy calls in emails provided by the Nebraska, Arizona, and Ohio attorneys general’s offices. The Nebraska and Arizona attorneys general’s offices rejected requests for any Briefing Room materials referenced in emails received by their officials, on the grounds that the files were not produced by their offices and were posted to a third-party website. — theintercept.com/...
The AGs appear to have adopted a complicated subterfuge to hide these e-mails and documents from the public. Government ethics experts believe this is a clear sign of corruption.
“It looks like a clear effort on the part of these attorneys general’s offices to evade their transparency requirements under open records laws by keeping documents on this website,” said Brendan Fischer, a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C. “They have the ability to access these records, the records are connected to their official duties, and they’re just refusing to turn them over.” — theintercept.com/...
Documents shared on the secret RAGA/RLDF site are directly connected to efforts by Republican AGs to undermine rules protecting workers, the environment and vulnerable communities. The Intercept has links to specific documents shared on this site.
And we know why these AGs are trying to hide the e-mails and documents, they reveal their corrupt dealings with corporate donors. These donors seek to influence policy through campaign contributions and offers of well-paid lobbying gigs or jobs. The Republican AGs do their bidding.
RAGA’s largest donors in 2017 included the Judicial Crisis Network ($2.9 million), a dark money organization that led a $10 million media campaign to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch; the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform ($590,000), a trade association that works to limit lawsuits against corporations; and Koch Industries ($205,000), the global conglomerate run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. — theintercept.com/...
Back in 2014, the NY Times reported that Scott Pruitt and several other Republican AGs were secretly working with oil-companies to undermine federal regulators. This nexus was discovered via public records requests. The secret document share may have been developed to avoid such embarassment.
The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state.
But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying.
“Outstanding!” William F. Whitsitt, who at the time directed government relations at the company, said in a note to Mr. Pruitt’s office. The attorney general’s staff had taken Devon’s draft, copied it onto state government stationery with only a few word changes, and sent it to Washington with the attorney general’s signature. “The timing of the letter is great, given our meeting this Friday with both E.P.A. and the White House.” — www.nytimes.com/...
These letters and several other correspondences were a subject of intense debate during Scott Pruitt’s confirmation hearings to lead the EPA. Pruitt was narrowly confirmed, 52-46 along a largely party-line vote.
— @subirgrewal