For immediate release:

5/9/2024

Tonight, Oklahoma Attorney General Genter Drummond announced that he is taking control of Treasurer Todd Russ’s case against BlackRock. However, documents obtained by the American Accountability Foundation show that his actions tonight are motivated, not by the best interest of Oklahomans, but by a close relationship with Blackrock and their lobbyists. Put simply, Drummond does not want to take over to win the case, he wants to take over so that he can tank it and protect BlackRock. 

While Drummond claims in public to stand against ESG, these documents show him praising and working closely with BlackRock, the champions of ESG, behind closed doors. Drummond has extensive communications with BlackRock official Mark McCombe and lobbyist Pat McFerron of CMA Strategies, which represents BlackRock. 

Emails obtained by AAF show Attorney General Drummond fawning over BlackRock’s team, telling McCombe that “I look forward to receiving empirical data from your team and from Pat, who is a deeply respected and influential consultant.” BlackRock was able to secure a meeting personally with the Attorney General because Drummond’s Chief of Staff, Trebor Worthen, put the extraordinary meeting on his calendar. 

Drummond’s open door policy to Blackrock’s lobbyist allowed representatives of the woke corporate giant to get on his calendar on May 11, 2023, just a few days after the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office announced the Financial Institution Restricted List that would ban investment with BlackRock. It was widely anticipated that there would be a lawsuit attacking this list, and that the Attorney General would be at the center of that lawsuit.  

BlackRock’s ESG agenda goes directly against the interests and values of the American people, with goals that include forcing businesses to adopt racial quota systems and shutting  down the American energy industry. Over 120,000 Oklahomans depend on the energy industry for their livelihoods. For Attorney General Gentner Drummond to work with the people who seek to throw all those people out of work is an epic and shameful betrayal.

“The American people deserve answers from AG Drummond,” said American Accountability president Thomas Jones. “And, in light of these revelations, the people of Oklahoma deserve to know whose interests the Attorney General seeks to promote: the people of Oklahoma who elected him or his pals at BlackRock? The evidence seems pretty clear that from the start of this controversy, Genter Drummond has been on the side of BlackRock and not on the side of the citizens of Oklahoma”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond should recuse himself from this suit without delay. He owes it to the people of Oklahoma that they get unbiased legal representation. 

All documents can be seen here.

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