BOSTON– This afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Ed Kinkeade issued a one-sentence ruling reversing his unprecedented and dangerous ruling for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to be deposed in Texas court.
Please see Associate Research Director Tamar Lawrence-Samuel’s statement below:
“This is a huge victory for democracy and uncovering the truth about Exxon’s decades of deception. The order to depose Attorney General Healey was not only unprecedented, it represented a perverse inversion of justice–using the U.S. justice system to undermine the vital duties of the office of the attorney general. Exxon is desperately trying to undermine these investigations by attacking the character of anyone who challenges it and creating controversy to distract from the truth. These scorched-earth tactics, torn straight from Big Tobacco’s playbook, threaten democracy and corporate accountability everywhere.
As President-elect Trump continues to fill the swamp with corporate CEOs of every stripe including Exxon Mobil’s own Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State, the protection of the duty of the attorney general to challenge corporate abuse is now more important than ever.”
###