Bob McCarty Writes

I haven’t decided yet whether New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is a liar, an incompetent public official or both.

In a post June 5, I shared the outcome of a Freedom of Information Law (a.k.a., “FOIL”) request I had filed eight days earlier with Cuomo’s office: In short, he denies having any records of contact with representatives of the Amazon Defense Coalition, the over-the-top-zealous group behind a $27 billion lawsuit filed against Chevron Corporation in Ecuador. Further, it appears, he wants people like me to believe the accusatory tone he took in a widely-publicized May 4 letter (pdf) to Chevron CEO David J. O’Reilly was based solely upon papers filed in the case and was without political motivation.

Not believing that to be the case, I followed up Cuomo’s initial denial by filing another FOIL request June 6.  In it, I requested “copies of all paper and electronic correspondence during the past 12 months between Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (including any of his assistants) and all representatives of (1) Kohn Swift & Graf, P.C., and (2) attorney Steven Donziger.”

Six days later, I received the reply below which, like the one before, came from Amy C. Karp, an assistant counsel in Cuomo’s office:

“Please be advised that the Office of the Attorney General has conducted a diligent search and does not possess any records that respond to your request.”

For the second time in two weeks, Cuomo’s office has denied having had contact during the past 12 months with people involved on the plaintiff’s side of the lawsuit against Chevron: Kohn Swift & Graf, P.C., the Philadelphia law firm providing funding for the plaintiff; and Donziger, the lead plaintiff attorney in the case.

I, for one, don’t believe a power-hungry liberal Democrat like Cuomo would write a letter to O’Reilly without first having had some kind of contact with representatives of ADC, Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C., and/or Donziger.  Do you?

Can I prove he’s had contact with them?  Not yet.  I will, however, be paying close attention to the New York State Board of Elections web site where contributions to Cuomo’s 2010 campaign contributions are listed.  In particular, I’ll be looking for contributions from certain trial lawyers and environmentalists.

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See also: To read previous BMW posts about the lawsuit , read these BMW posts.