Ken Cuccinelli's Office Knew of Staffer's Improper Aid to Energy Companies

Ken Cuccinelli has tried to dodge the simmer scandal that is harming him greatly with voters in Southwest Virginia by claiming that his office did not know about Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pidgeon's aid to affiliates of Consol Energy, one of Cuccinelli's largest campaign donors.  As with pretty much everything that comes out of Cuccinelli's mouth, the claims are untrue.  As the Bristol Herald Courier is reporting, Pidgeon continued advising the energy companies against Virginia landowners for months after Cuccinelli's office learned of the ongoing communications.  In short, Cuccinelli has lied yet again.  Just as he has lied about his extreme agenda while in the Virginia Senate and then as Attorney General.  As noted previously, from my experience with the AG's office, it is utterly inconceivable that Pidgeon followed this course of action without the knowledge, much less the direction of her superiors, including Cuccinelli himself.  Here are highlights from the Herald Courier coverage:

A state Attorney General’s Office staffer continued to advise energy companies how to fight landowners suing over natural gas royalties for months after the state’s top law office learned of the communications, a Bristol Herald Courier review of the emails shows.

Whether the communications continued with AG Ken Cuccinelli’s knowledge remains a mystery because his office refuses to say when he personally learned of the emails or when he officially shut down the staffer’s contact with the corporate attorneys.

Despite being in the spotlight, AG staffer Sharon Pigeon went on to suggest how a corporate lawyer might pull the rug out from under one of the landowner plaintiffs.

“How many hats can he (the plaintiff) wear in all this?” she complained in one of two emails sent after her correspondence became the grist of legal debate. “Apparently, he wants the benefits of the royalty being paid, but wants to undermine the system enabling that payment.”

Mention of 52 emails swapped between Pigeon and lawyers for energy companies EQT Production and CNX Gas appeared in court documents in mid-2012. Some of the actual emails — sent from 2010 through 2012 — were publicly filed later that year as part of the court record.

At the time, lawyers representing Southwest Virginia landowners in a series of five class-action lawsuits were arguing for access to Pigeon’s emails to determine whether they would bolster the fight for the royalties.

Pigeon continued to offer advice on how to defeat one of the lawsuits in an email sent to CNX attorney Jonathan Blank on Aug. 28, 2012, and later on Sept. 5, 2012.

In the first email, she suggested Blank could shoot down the case if he could find any mention in state or local records of royalty payments made to one of the main plaintiffs or to his relatives. This is the email where she complains that the plaintiff wears “many hats.”

In the second email, she merely states “To refresh your memory,” and includes a copy of the previous email where she recommends the records search.

Cuccinelli says his office joined the federal lawsuit only to fight the constitutional challenges to the Virginia Gas and Oil Act, which created the escrow accounts.

A Herald Courier review of her emails shows she suggested such courtroom tactics as combating a likely information request to discover other landowners owed royalties, as well as countering arguments against the amount of royalty proceeds they sought.

The emails have become a sore spot in Republican Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial run — CNX parent company CONSOL Energy has poured $140,044 into his campaign since he became attorney general in 2010.

Ken Cuccinelli's Explanation of Aid to Gas Companies Begins to Unravel

Not to beat a dead horse, but as previously noted, NEVER, EVER in my experience as an attorney working in the oil and gas industry did I see a state attorney general's office aiding oil and gas companies in civil litigation matters against landowners over royalty payments.  So-called "force pooling" statutes and regulations - which assembly a group of leases to provide a viable exploration sites for wells - have been around for many decades.  Cuccinelli's office had no legitimate reason to be advising gas companies on litigation strategy, etc.  Absolutely none.  Now, as the Virginian Pilot states in a main page editorial, Cuccinelli's bogus explanation is unraveling big time.  One can only hope that Terry McAuliffe hammers this message home to residents of Southwest Virginia.  Here are editorial highlights:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's credibility suffered another blow recently, after a southwestern Virginia newspaper unearthed records showing a senior assistant in his office communicated through email dozens of times with attorneys representing energy companies in a lawsuit filed by property owners.

Sharon Pigeon, a senior assistant attorney general, "sent at least 52 emails to lawyers of defendants EQT Production and CNX Gas since lawsuits were filed three years ago," the Bristol Herald Courier reported. Consol Energy, the parent of CNX, has contributed more than $100,000 to Cuccinelli's gubernatorial campaign since last year.

And the details simply magnify the concerns expressed by a federal judge three months ago, when she described the attorney's correspondence with the energy companies' legal counsel as "shocking."

The attorney general previously claimed Pigeon's role was limited to defending the constitutionality of the Virginia Gas and Oil Act. But the latest reporting shows there were few, if any, limits to Pigeon's advice, and a federal judge said she found no indication of advice pertaining to constitutional issues, the Bristol paper reported.

"Instead, Pigeon's emails appear to have focused on such topics as the effect of a jury pool, judicial orders and other case issues, suggest references in court documents. She sent many of those emails months after a senior judge ruled on the constitutional challenges and after the attorney general's office dropped out of the case."

The state inspector general is investigating whether Pigeon inappropriately used state resources, but he cannot investigate whether the attorney general had any direct involvement, or direct knowledge, of her actions unless the governor, or the attorney general himself, or a grand jury, requests he do so.

Cuccinelli's initial bid to explain Pigeon's conduct has boomeranged. His only recourse for trying to salvage credibility on the subject now appears to be to draw the same kind of independent scrutiny that he brought on himself this spring, after revising his incomplete financial disclosure forms.

After 36 years in the legal profession, I find it inconceivable that a senior assistant attorney general would have acted as Ms. Pigeon did without directives from above.  There seemingly is no other explanation.  Well, there is one: the over $100,000 Cuccinelli received from the parent company of one of the gas company litigants.    The man is dirty and a liar, in my view.