Attorney General Keith Ellison has been “doing the bidding of special interest groups” regarding green energy, a lawsuit alleges. The New House Republican Caucus shared on its Facebook page that the oral arguments were heard in the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday and a decision can be expected within 30 days.
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) brought this suit against Ellison to disclose details about the relationship between his office and “an outside legal organization, the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center.”
According to the UMLC website, the law center filed “a data practices lawsuit on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for opening his office to attorneys hired, paid for and directed by Democrat activist, Michael Bloomberg, as climate change warriors.”
UMLC is currently “seeking to obtain documents related to Bloomberg and the challenged attorneys regarding influence in a lawsuit against the energy industry.”
A part of UMLC’s legal team, James Dickey, told The Minnesota Sun what Ellison “has done is not in dispute.”
He explained, “Mr. Ellison admitted in an op-ed to The Star Tribune last year that he was allowing the NYU School of Law’s Energy and Environment Impact Center, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to pay the salary of two lawyers to use the powers of the AG’s office to sue fossil fuel companies and bring other environmental and climate change lawsuits.”
Dickey said, “We believe that this ‘renting out’ of the powers of the AG’s office violates ethics rules and is offensive to the concept that the AG, a constitutional office in Minnesota, is responsive to the people of Minnesota, not a New York-based climate-warrior special interest group.”
The lawsuit is “challenging the Attorney General’s refusal to provide documents related to the Bloomberg-funded NYU group,” Dickey told The Sun. UMLC hopes the Supreme Court sends the case back to the District Court for Ellison “to provide real evidence supporting its claims of privilege related to these documents.”
Ellison and his office did not respond to The Sun’s request for comment regarding the situation.
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
Photo “Keith Ellison” by Lorie Shaull CC BY 2.0.
