Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Ken Cuccinelli's Gas Royalties Scandal


While there are growing calls for Bob McDonnell to resign from office due to the growing "Gift Gate" scandal - McDonnell's defense basically sounds like Sergeant Schultz  in Hogans Heroes: he heard nothing, he saw nothing and knew nothing about his wife's raking in loot and receiving loans for Jonnie R. Williams, Sr. - to date, Ken Cuccinelli has continued to refuse to return any of the loot that he received from Williams.  But perhaps the biggest scandal that has yet to fully unfold surrounding Cuccinelli is his office's improper provision of legal assistance to  the subsidiary of one of Cuccinelli's $100,000 plus donors in a civil lawsuit against Virginians.  

Cuccinelli has tried to claim that the subordinate in the Attorney General's office gave legal advice to his donor's subsidiary as part of her representation of the Virginia Oil and Gas Board.  Pardon my French, but this story line is BULLSHIT.   Why do I say this?  First, I am well familiar with the Virginia's Oil and Gas regulatory scheme.  In fact, when Virginia's statutes were enacted in 1982, one of my fellow attorneys at the oil company I worked for at the time was on the advisory committee working on the legislation (Union Texas Petroleum was at the time the largest holder of oil and gas leases in Virginia).  Since I was a member of the Virginia State Bar, I was involved in reviewing proposed legislation that implemented the current regulatory scheme.   I suspect I know more about oil and gas law in Virginia and elsewhere than anyone on the current Attorney General's staff.  There was NO NEED for the Oil and Gas Board to be involved in this lawsuit.

In addition, in private practice, I have been involved in litigation with leaseholders from the lessee/oil company perspective.  NEVER, EVER in such litigation did the state oil and gas board or the state attorney general's office provide legal assistance to my law firm or our oil company clients.  NEVER, EVER.   In short, there is no legitimate way to explain why an Assistant Attorney General was giving legal advise and assistance to oil company litigants in a civil lawsuit.  A $100,000 contribution to Cuccinelli's gubernatorial campaign is seemingly the only explanation.  Cuccinelli sold out Virginia landowners and taxpayers in exchange for cold cash.  Democrat Attorney General Candidate Mark Herring explains it all well:

“At a time when Virginians deserve the truth, Ken Cuccinelli and his office continue to fight to keep the public in the dark about the help they gave to out-of-state gas companies trying to deny Virginians millions in mining royalties," Herring said. “It’s shameful that Ken Cuccinelli aligned with the gas companies to keep their emails out of the public view. And it’s shameful that Cuccinelli would think it’s acceptable for his office to offer legal advice to an out of state company, instead of working on behalf of Virginians.
“It seems every day we have more proof that Ken Cuccinelli is more concerned with sweeping his scandals – whether it’s Star Scientific or this mining royalties scandal – under the rug instead of revealing the truth. It’s shocking that his ticketmate Mark Obenshain sits quietly on the sidelines while Ken Cuccinelli puts the interest of a company that donates to his campaign over the interests of Virginia taxpayers. This is why Virginians are ready for a change in the Office of Attorney General,”
Oh, and did I mention that Cuccinelli's office fought to block the release of the e-mails that revealed the extent of the Attorney General's office was in this civil litigation?  Cuccinelli is a lying douche bag in my opinion.  Like most of the far right faction that likes to wear their religiosity on their sleeve, Cuccinelli makes a tawdry whore look virtuous.
 

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