Trump Blames New York AG for Exxon Moving to Texas in 1989

Trump and Exxon


During a break in the closing arguments of his New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump claimed that Attorney General Letitia James was responsible for forcing the oil and gas conglomerate ExxonMobil to leave the state and move to Texas. There is one small problem with the former president’s accusation: ExxonMobile left New York in 1989, three decades before James assumed the role of attorney general. 

Speaking to reporters outside of the courtroom, Trump said James should “be criminally liable for this. She did this to Exxon, and they drove Exxon out of New York. Exxon paid billions of dollars in taxes, they’re now living in Texas.” 

In October of 1989 ExxonMobile, then The Exxon Corporation, announced it would be relocating its corporate headquarters from Manhattan to Dallas, Texas. Former Chairman Lawrence G. Rawl said at the time that ”the Dallas area offered the best combination of factors from the standpoint of our employees’ personal and professional lives and from an overall business standpoint.” The move was understandable, given that midtown Manhattan is not known for its close proximity to major fossil fuel deposits. In July of last year, the company announced another, more local, move — from Dallas to Houston. 

In 2019, James took over a lawsuit filed against ExxonMobil by her predecessor in one of her first major cases as New York’s attorney general. The lawsuit accused the company of misleading the public and investors regarding the threat of climate change and environmental regulations to their business. New York ultimately lost the case against ExxonMobil in December of 2019, and an appeals court ruled in 2022 that the company would not be allowed to sue the state of New York and Massachusetts to end ongoing probes into their handling of climate change. 

Trump’s continued maligning of James comes as he faces imminent penalties in a civil fraud case that has already found him liable for having defrauded investors and the state of New York by inflating the values of his assets and properties in order to secure favorable business deals for his flagship company, the Trump Organization. 

During Thursday’s closing arguments, Trump launched into an unauthorized tirade from the defense table. The former president raved that “we have a situation where I’m an innocent man I’ve been persecuted by somebody running for office and I think you have to go outside the bounds.” 

“What’s happened here, sir, is a fraud on me,” Trump added, at one point declaring that he is actually the person who should be owed damages after all he “went through.” 

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Judge Arthur Engoron eventually cut him off and instructed his attorneys to control their client. Shortly after, Trump once again spoke to reporters outside of the courtroom and doubled down on his claims about Exxon. 

“This is a disgraceful situation, this is why businesses are fleeing New York, like Exxon,” Trump said. 





Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-blames-new-york-ag-exxon-moving-texas-1234944871/

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