Keith Ellison Moves To Shield Records on Controversial Legal Scheme

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Free Beacon

Democratic Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison is working to shield a trove of documents linking his office to a controversial legal scheme funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in June that Ellison must release communications regarding his hiring of two private attorneys through Bloomberg's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC). Rather than turn over the documents, however, Ellison appealed the ruling to the state's Supreme Court, lamenting that the decision would force his office to produce "internal privileged communications to any member of the public who requests it.

 

The move is at odds with Ellison's rhetoric as an elected official. Just one month before his appeal, the Democrat praised an effort to archive documents generated by lawsuits filed against drug companies, writing that any "future deal" with opioid manufacturers should "include transparency and doc disclosure." Three years earlier, Ellison criticized former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney for lacking transparency because the Republican used "frosted" glass in his office.

Bloomberg established the SEEIC in 2017 through a $6 million grant to the New York University School of Law. The center funds climate change litigation by paying to place environmental lawyers in attorney general offices across the country. Ellison applied to participate in the program in 2019, saying Bloomberg funds would provide his office with the "additional staffing necessary" to pursue "progressive clean energy, climate, and environmental matters of regional and national importance."

Within three months of Ellison's request, the SEEIC embedded two environmental attorneys in the Democrat's office at an estimated annual cost of between $192,000 and $260,000, according to Ellison's application. When nonprofit group Energy Policy Advocates sought communications from Ellison discussing the program, the Democrat refused, claiming the information was "nonpublic."