Michael Bloomberg’s nonprofit organization funded a program that places private lawyers in the offices of state attorneys general to advance the billionaire media titan’s environmental agenda, according to a report on Tuesday.
Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2017 gave $5.6 million to New York University School of Law’s Environment and Energy State Impact Center to provide lawyers who focus on environmental and climate change lawsuits to the state AG offices, Fox News reported.
The program is coming under scrutiny now that Bloomberg is a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
“This is a fundamental question of ethics and who’s running our government,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, told Fox News. “When you actually get to place someone in under a specific agenda and then pay them and they’re within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office and that starts to really stink.”
Morrisey said it’s “very clear” that the program is used “to attack the presidency of Donald Trump.”
“And that raises other questions when the benefactor of this organization is running against the president,” he added.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said the political implications should set off alarm bells.
“What’s problematic is the arrangement through which a private organization or individual can promote an overtly political agenda by paying the salaries of government employees,” said Curtis, a Republican.
The Impact Center has lawyers in the AG offices in Washington, DC, Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Oregon.
All are run by Democrats.
David Hayes, executive director of the Impact Center, sent an email to the AG offices in August 2017 to describe the program.
“The opportunity to potentially hire an NYU Fellow is open to all state attorneys general who demonstrate a need and commitment to defending environmental values and advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions,” Hayes said.
In a statement to Fox News, the Impact Center emphasized that it is “nonpartisan.”
“The Center also provides legal assistance to interested AGs and serves as a centralized public source of information for ongoing AG initiatives to enhance the public’s understanding of the importance of the clean energy, climate change and environmental matters that attorneys general are pursuing,” the statement said.
A request for comment by Fox News from the Bloomberg campaign was forwarded to Bloomberg Philanthropies.
A spokesperson reiterated the organization’s strong support for the Impact Center and said the attorneys general benefit from NYU’s help in fighting “unprecedented rollbacks of fundamental health and environmental protections.”