Exxon filed a motion in Tarrant County, TX (which includes Ft Worth, TX) District Court last week.
The motion seeks to obtain depositions from 12+ individuals. Exxon's contention is that these individuals have possibly conspired to abuse the law in suing Exxon for covering up climate research.
Actually, I couldn't find the word 'hypocrisy' in the Exxon motion, but the motion definitely raises this issue. This is because:
1. seven California cities including San Mateo county are suing Exxon for conspiracy to cover up climate research which would show a drastic increase in sea level based on a 2012 meeting in La Jolla, California and,
2. some of these counties have, post 2012, sold bonds to investors (a big one was for San Mateo County, hence the map) declaring that they either do not expect sea level rises or do not know if there are any impacts from climate change that would raise sea levels.
I don't really understand much about the relationship between cities within a county and the county bonding authority or about the legal issues involved with selling bonds or about the issue of suing for climate research suppression. Thus, I'm not going to take a position on the hypocrisy of the people being sued. However, it is the first example I've come across where hypocrisy could be a legal issue.
Exxon's filing is here.
CNN had a story that makes the case that President Donald Trump has been playing lots of golf contradicting his campaign promises to work hard as president. The story is entitled, "Donald Trump's Huge Golf Hypocrisy". Irwin sent me a link to the CNN story.
The story actually does more than that. It chronicles many statements by candidate Trump that either promise to not play golf when elected or criticize former President Barack Obama for playing golf or criticize Obama for not making deals when playing golf.
A defense of Trump is proffered by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. The defense is, as I understand it, that golf, when played while discussing business is not really playing golf. In that regard, the first image is Trump playing golf with pro golfer Rory McIlroy in February 2017. The second image is Trump playing golf with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe in the summer of 2017. Per the Sanders theory, the first game is golf the second is business.
I tried to find this theory in the 1987 book "Art of the Deal" but was unable to find it. However, even if I had, it is clear that there are plenty of times, that Trump has played golf without doing ' business'.
However, I did find an interesting article by the ghost writer of the 1987 book (who gets credit on the cover and inside so its not so 'ghosty'). He explains Trump's counterfactual statements like this, " ...facts are whatever Trump deems them to be on any given day. When he is
challenged, he instinctively doubles down — even when what he has just
said is demonstrably false. I saw that countless times, whether it was
as trivial as exaggerating the number of floors at Trump Tower or as
consequential as telling me that his casinos were performing well when
they were actually going bankrupt....".
So, perhaps, "hypocrisy" isn't the best way to describe Trump's golf statements. Magical thinking might be a better way to do it.
First image from Politifact.
Second image from the Daily Mail.
CNN story is here.
A .pdf of "Art of the Deal" is here.
The article by Trump's ghostwriter is here.
Actually, I couldn't find the word 'hypocrisy' in the Exxon motion, but the motion definitely raises this issue. This is because:
