About half the U.S. state attorneys general traveled to France in a trip cosponsored by a group mostly funded by companies, including some under scrutiny of the top state lawyers.
Attorneys general are among the most visible officials in state governments and the job can be a launching pad to the world stage. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, previously held the post in California.
Joining together gives AGs a chance to share concerns, develop bonds and strategies and talk with officials in other countries. The trips can be posh and provide opportunities for company lobbyists to rub elbows with them. Companies that have picked up the bill and sent representatives in recent years have been from the pharmaceutical, auto, financial, online gaming and tech industries, among others.
Organizers said this summer’s trip is “solely focused on commemorating and paying tribute to the achievements and sacrifices of those who fought in Normandy,” even though they are taking place nearly two months after the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6, which was commemorated by a gathering of world leaders.
The National Association of Attorneys General, known as AGA, a century-old organization that cosponsored the trip to France for attorneys general, would not provide dates for the event, but one AG said it was set for July 29 to Aug. 3.
The trip illuminates how corporate lawyers and lobbyists can gain access to officials who regulate their businesses with help from the Attorney General Alliance, one of the groups behind the event.
“Lobbyists essentially fund these trips,” said Christopher Toth, a former AGA executive director. “They funnel the money through AGA, and then that insulates the AGs from being criticized that they’re taking money from lobbyists.”
It also shields them from criticism that they are traveling abroad on taxpayers’ dime.
The AGA said 26 attorneys general were going on the trip. The nonprofit group said the Olympics were not on the itinerary, though the marquee international athletic competitions coincided with it. In 2022, the group sponsored a trip to Qatar in time with the FIFA World Cup soccer games, which some AGs attended.
The group said it would not make public the 2024 schedule or exactly which AGs were attending in France because of security concerns.
“This event, like all others, was scheduled based on availability of attorneys general and hotel & conference space,” Tania Maestas, an AGA lawyer, said in an email.
Maestas declined to answer whether any of the corporate sponsors were giving attorneys general tickets to Olympic games.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, said she would be attending an Olympic soccer game in addition to the Normandy events and that the tickets, and a few days of a vacation in France with her husband, would be at her expense.
Other AGs said they would not attend the games or ignored queries from media.
Attorneys general are the chief government lawyers in their states. All of them have roles in consumer protection and many in law enforcement. They are elected in 43 states and appointed in the other seven.
A big shift in the job began in the 1990s, when the states banded together to sue the tobacco industry over dangers caused by smoking. The deal opened the door for other huge multistate lawsuits and settlements over opioids, failing car airbags and other consumer protection issues.
That use of the office — ensuring corporate accountability — gave rise to other developments. Now, some major law firms have departments specializing in representing companies that come under the scrutiny of AGs.
Those departments, which frequently employ former AGs or their deputies, have all the motivation to lobby people in the job, as do the companies they represent.
Over time, the Conference of Western Attorneys General expanded its core topics from largely regional concerns such as water resources and challenges facing Native American communities to a broader range of issues and in 2019 they created the nationwide AGA.
The group’s tax filings show it both brought in and spent about $10 million from July 2022 through June 2023. More than $6 million in expenses were on travel, conferences and meetings and events. Much of the organization’s revenue has come in the form of sponsorships.
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