Pirate's Cove

I’ve previously mentioned that a group of attorney generals (all Democrats) have joined together to go after Exxon, along with looking at ways to silence climate skeptics, such as the Virgin Islands AG going after a private group, Competitive Enterprise Institute. Now we get

(Fox News) State Democratic officials are facing mounting accusations they secretly coordinated with climate activists to investigate whether ExxonMobil hid the truth about global warming, as new documents show the collaboration went deeper than previously thought.

Emails obtained and released by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute show a number of state attorneys general and their staff received advice and guidance from environmental activists at a March 29 meeting in New York, on the same day as a major press conference.

The meeting included a presentation by Peter Frumhoff of the Union of Concerned Scientists on the “imperative of taking action now on climate change.” Matt Pawa, who litigated against Exxon in a global warming case, was also in attendance, giving a presentation regarding climate change litigation to the AGs and their staff.

There was quite a bit of secrecy and collusion in this, with too much information to properly excerpt.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a January meeting in Manhattan was a key moment in the plan to unleash a Big Tobacco-style government probe of oil companies. The meeting brought together several veteran environmental activists to discuss how to “establish in [the] public’s mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution that has pushed humanity (and all creation) toward climate chaos and grave harm.”

As more emails are released, Exxon is striking back.

“These revelations from the meeting in January, and now these emails, show that there is a lot of collaboration, collusion, conspiracy — pick a word — that shows these groups and trial lawyers working together to attack a company that has 75,000 employees and millions of shareholders,” Alan Jeffers, media relations manager for ExxonMobil told FoxNews.com. “That’s who these people are attacking, these employees and shareholders who benefit when the company does well.”

The one thing missing from this article, an opinion piece on it at Fox, and other articles is if this is illegal. It’s certainly unethical. How about this from Glenn Reynolds, in a piece publishes prior to the release of the emails

Federal law  makes it a felony “for two or more persons to agree together to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the Unites States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same).”

I wonder if U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker, or California Attorney General Kamala Harris, or New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have read this federal statute. Because what they’re doing looks like a concerted scheme to restrict the First Amendment free speech rights of people they don’t agree with. They should look up 18 U.S.C. Sec. 241, I am sure they each have it somewhere in their offices.

For all their lofty claims, these groups and AGs are simply attempting to shut down Free Speech and other Rights.

But all is not lost for CEI. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985 provides a civil action for conspiracies to deprive individuals of civil rights. If I were CEI — or these attorneys general — I might give that law a read as well.

Discovery could be fun!