The National Association of Attorneys General is refusing to release information pertaining to Republican accusations that the group has turned into an unaccountable left-wing litigation machine.

NAAG bills itself as a nonpartisan membership forum that helps state attorneys general fulfill their duties as the top law enforcement officials in their states. But the organization has fallen under the ire of Republican attorneys general who have accused NAAG of scooping up significant portions of multistate settlement agreements intended to help victims and using them instead to fund left-wing programming and litigation slush funds.

Central to Republican concerns is the NAAG’s practice of awarding grants to state attorneys general to assist in investigating and prosecuting civil cases. States are expected to repay the grants upon successful litigation, leading critics to describe them more as loans than grants.

Some Republican attorneys general have accused the NAAG of locking them out of the grant application process. State attorneys general control the NAAG’s three fund committees, two of which Democrats hold majorities in.

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It’s not clear how many states have received NAAG grants, how much they are expected to repay upon successful litigation, or any details surrounding the purpose of the grants. NAAG acting Executive Director Al Lama refused to provide details on the grants to the Washington Examiner.

“The grant fund annual reports are not public documents, as they contain information related to ongoing investigations, as well as other law enforcement initiatives,” Lama said. “The rules and regulations of each settlement fund stipulate that these annual reports be provided to members of fund committees. This information is also provided to any NAAG member at any time upon their request.”

Despite Lama’s claim that any NAAG member can request information surrounding its fund committees, some Republican attorneys general who are members of the group say their requests for information on the fund committees have been stonewalled.

“I’ve specifically requested some more information from NAAG,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told the Washington Free Beacon in March. “And frankly I’ve been given nothing so far but platitudes.”

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a May 24 letter to former NAAG Executive Director Chris Toth that the NAAG’s granting practices “incentivizes states to pursue litigation for a financial return, regardless of whether such litigation is justified.”

“The result is NAAG’s promotion of ‘entrepreneurial litigation’ and ‘suing businesses for profit,'” Cameron wrote in the letter, which was also signed by the Republican attorneys general of Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Cameron added that NAAG’s fund committees have barred Republicans from applying for grants while simultaneously appropriating settlement dollars to fund left-wing programming. Cameron cited a 2021 NAAG initiative designed to help attorneys general combat hate that labeled Republican campaign ads as disinformation.

NAAG has raked in considerable sums of money from multistate settlements against for-profit companies. NAAG recently reported that, as of the end of 2021, it and its affiliated charity group controlled over $280 million in assets.

One of NAAG’s Democratic-controlled fund committees received $20 million in seed funding from the $600 million Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement in 2016. The other received $15 million from a landmark 2012 mortgage foreclosure settlement between 49 states, the federal government, and the five largest mortgage service providers.

In March 2021, NAAG received $15 million as part of a $600 million settlement against McKinsey for its role in marketing opioid prescriptions, an amount nearly double what many states received from the settlement.

“These states have lost thousands of their citizens to the opioid epidemic and represent thousands who still struggle,” Cameron wrote in his May 24 letter. “Yet NAAG, an entity with no such constituency, collected $15 million.”

The American Tort Reform Association published a report in March accusing the NAAG of shifting its mission to “pure asset accumulation.”

“While NAAG represents itself as a non-partisan organization serving the state AGs, in essence, the NAAG has largely turned into an organization that has only one goal: suing businesses for profit,” ATRA’s report stated.

“NAAG’s training is tailored specifically to promote litigation against business and industry,” ATRA Director Lauren Sheets Jarrell added in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Personal injury lawyers regularly attend NAAG meetings and participate in educating and training attorneys general on best litigation practices. This has created an apparent codependent relationship between the trial bar and these elected officials.”

Lama, the NAAG acting executive director, told the Wall Street Journal editorial board in July that the group has engaged with Cameron about the concerns he expressed in his May 24 letter. Lama added that NAAG had spun up a “select committee” composed of three Democratic and three Republican attorneys general to “consider reforms” to NAAG’s bylaws and procedures.

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Cameron’s office declined to comment.

“We continue to engage with the NAAG Executive Committee regarding our concerns,” Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn told the Washington Examiner. “We do not have any further comment at this time.”

Original Location: National AG group refuses to disclose info driving GOP allegations of left-wing bias

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