Thursday, July 14, 2016

House Committee Subpoenas Schneiderman, Others Over Exxon Probe

 

Note: Matthew Hamilton reported from Albany. Hearst’s Dan Freedman reported from Washington.

A congressional committee has taken the apparently unprecedented step of sending subpoenas to attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts over a multi-state probe of Exxon Mobil.

Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee, announced that formal subpoenas would be going out at a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the U.S. Capitol. This after a roughly two-month effort to force New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and others to voluntarily give up a number of records related to the Exxon investigation, which looks at whether the company lied to investors and the public in the past about what they knew about climate change.

Smith said “the attorneys general have appointed themselves to decide what is valid and what is invalid in terms of climate change” and the investigation is a “blatant effort to deny free speech.”

“The actions by the attorneys general amount to a form of extortion,” he said.

Smith said he expects responses from attorneys general in two weeks.

In a statement, a Schneiderman spokesman maintained that the committee “has no authority to interfere with these state law enforcement investigations, and whether they issue a subpoena or not, this Attorney General will not be intimidated or deterred from ensuring that every New Yorker receives the full protection of state laws.” 

Click here for the full article.

Source: TimesUnion

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