A judge ordered Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to release thousands of emails he shared with various fossil fuel companies prior to becoming President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the EPA.
Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons’ order directs the Republican to release the emails Tuesday, several days after the Senate is set to confirm Pruitt’s nomination. She etched out a series of stipulations on the number and scope of the emails released.
The lawsuit was brought last week by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a left-leaning group funded by billionaire financier George Soros. CMD argued the Oklahoma attorney general’s office was purposely stonewalling the group’s efforts
Timmons’ order does not necessary allow CMD access all 2,600 emails the group was hoping to retain when it sued.
Democrats hope the emails will help curtail Pruitt’s almost-certain confirmation.
“Sometime – a week from now, maybe days from now – my fear is that a number of members, especially on the other side, will have been put in a very bad position and asked to vote for a nominee that they otherwise may not have supported had they known,” Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, said in a statement after Timmons’ decision.
CMD, which bills itself as a nonpartisan journalism outfit, counts the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Soros’s Open Society Foundations among its donors. It has also received money from progressive financier, Tides Foundation, which gave the group more than $160,000 in 2011 for research purposes.
CMD also acknowledged on its website accepting donations from the Rockefeller Family Foundation, which has worked for months backing attorneys general-led efforts to investigate ExxonMobil’s climate research.
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