Exxon Tells Groups To Preserve Records Of Communications With Press

"Lawyers for ExxonMobil have told a variety of non-governmental organizations to preserve all communications regarding climate change investigations with a sweeping array of other groups and individuals — including members of the press.

The letters from Exxon’s lawyers Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison said the groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Rockefeller Family Fund, should hang onto communications with individuals such as former vice president Al Gore and William McKibben, a Middlebury professor and leader of the environmental group 350.org.

The letters are the latest twist of a legal saga in which Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey and New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman have publicly announced inquiries into whether ExxonMobil improperly concealed information about climate change from consumers, investors and the public long after it knew the dangers. As part of those probes, the attorneys general have issued subpoenas for documents going back as far as the 1970s."

Steven Mufson reports for the Washington Post November 3, 2016.