ROME
CNN
—
As thousands gathered to mourn the pope last month, a group of American state government officials were ushered past a lengthy line to a Vatican museum.
They hadn’t come for a Pope Francis memorial, though.
At the museum, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor snapped photos surrounded by a scrum of lawyers and lobbyists. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill smiled as she stood next to an attorney from a firm representing a company her office is suing. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador chatted with the head of a corporate consultancy.
Those attorneys general had all traveled to Rome for free – thanks to an association funded by some of the same companies whose representatives now chatted up the American officials. That group also organized the officials’ stay in an opulent, luxury hotel and their chauffeured sightseeing around the Eternal City.
As CNN documented in March, companies have regularly paid to enjoy this kind of special access through the nonprofit Attorney General Alliance, which organizes trips to US resorts and foreign destinations. The AGA’s Rome trip offers the most detailed evidence yet of the close access corporate powers gain at these junkets – and of the potential conflicts of interest that come with that arrangement.
Critics say that by accepting luxury trips funded by donations from corporate interests, attorneys general may undermine public trust in their actions, especially their mission to enforce the law against powerful interests.
“It hurts the credibility of the office and the rule of law for attorneys general to use their status to elicit this kind of luxury travel,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at NYU Law. “If they really need to meet… how about Chicago in January?”
In a statement to CNN, AGA said the delegation to Rome included meetings with international law enforcement partners and Vatican officials on a range of issues including human trafficking. The trip also included accredited legal educational sessions for the attorneys general.
“The goal of our meeting was to discuss solutions for stronger enforcement of the law and better protection for those who are trafficked as modern-day slaves,” AGA’s general counsel Tania Maestas said in the statement.
Maestas said no litigation was discussed during the delegation and defended the attendance of state attorneys general.
“To conflate lawful business travel with a violation of the rule of law is to substitute optics for legality,” Maestas said. “The credibility of an office is best preserved not by avoiding all activity that might be perceived unfavorably, but by upholding the rule of law.”
A draft itinerary for the week-long Rome trip lists law enforcement meetings on topics like cryptocurrency and human trafficking in the mornings – but also other times blocked off for meals and tourism, like visits to museums and a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. The schedule for Friday listed only an unspecified “optional excursion” and a “closing dinner.”
Participants stayed at the five-star Rome Cavalieri hotel, which describes itself as an “opulent haven” and the “peak of prestige.” A CNN reporter spotted Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown resting with his eyes closed near the hotel pool on a sunny morning. A spokesperson for Brown’s office said he was honored to participate in the trip “to advance critical international law enforcement partnerships.”
Documents show AGA covered business-class flights to Italy for the attorneys general and their guests. For example, AGA reimbursed Attorney General Brown and his wife for tickets totaling over $14,000, according to copies of the flight receipts obtained by CNN. An AGA staffer also booked tickets for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and his wife, emails obtained through public records requests show. A separate AGA email last year touted the Rome trip as an “unforgettable experience.”
AGA did not respond to a question about how many attorneys general attended the conference. CNN asked attorneys general offices in all 50 states whether they planned to participate. Thirty-two offices said they were not attending, and 16 did not answer.
Brown’s office in Maryland confirmed that he was attending, and after the trip, a spokesperson for Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said that he attended with his family and secured a $100,000 grant from AGA to fight human trafficking. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez also accepted an invitation for the trip, according to an AGA email from November obtained through a records request.
CNN reporters in Rome also observed the attorneys general for Alaska, Idaho and Louisiana.
AGA, which pulled in nearly $27 million in sponsorships between 2019 and 2023 – the last year of records available in public financial reports – largely relies on donations from companies to fund its trips. Attorneys general also pay thousands of dollars per year in membership dues using taxpayer funds.
The group has previously granted varying levels of perks to companies based on how much they have contributed, records show. An AGA document from 2023, for example, promised sponsors who contributed $100,000 access to “invite-only events” and speaking slots at conferences not available to donors who gave $30,000.
One donor listed in previous AGA documents is WilmerHale, an international law firm that represents companies across a range of industries. One of the firm’s partners, Paul Connell, attended the AGA trip to Rome, where he joined at least three state attorneys general and other business representatives for a tour of the Vatican Museums.
After exiting the delegation’s tour bus, Connell stood beside Louisiana Attorney General Murrill at one point.
This year, Murrill joined a dozen other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit against investment companies alleging an anticompetitive conspiracy restricting coal production. Connell’s firm WilmerHale represents asset management company BlackRock in the case. The defendants in the lawsuit have argued the case “spins a farfetched theory” and fails to offer facts that demonstrate a conspiracy.
Connell is not listed in court records as one of WilmerHale’s attorneys working on the case. Asked what, if anything, Connell discussed with Murrill on the trip, a WilmerHale spokesperson said conversations between firms and clients are privileged and noted that the Louisiana Department of Justice is a firm client.
Murrill’s office did not respond to a question about whether her attendance and interaction with Connell in Rome posed a potential conflict of interest related to the BlackRock case.
In an interview on the podcast Legal Speak last month, Murrill encouraged companies to engage with state attorneys general offices, though she seemed to acknowledge that access through AGA comes at a price.
“It also can depend on the size of your business, what can you afford?” Murrill said. “The Attorney General Alliance is a membership organization but it has enormous value because you can engage on the front end … and you can meet a lot of attorney generals including your own in the states where you do business.”
As the AGA tour group joined the line for the Vatican Museums, other corporate attorneys and lobbyists identified by CNN could be seen standing alongside the attorneys general. Among them was Kia Floyd, the vice president of state and local policy for General Motors, which was listed in a 2023 AGA document as one of the group’s sponsors. General Motors and Floyd did not respond to requests for comment.
In the last year, General Motors was sued in separate cases by Texas and Arkansas over allegations regarding the company’s handling of private customer data. General Motors has denied the allegations and stated in court it has provided all necessary information for consumers to assess its products.
A spokesperson for Arkansas Attorney General Griffin said his boss “met and exchanged pleasantries with Ms. Floyd but did not discuss the lawsuit against General Motors, which we are pursuing aggressively to hold GM accountable.” The Texas attorney general’s office did not respond to a question about whether he joined the Rome trip.
Others identified in the Vatican tour group include Andrew Cook, a partner at the law firm Orrick, and Preston Baldwin, the CEO of corporate strategy firm, Centerpoint360. CNN confirmed their attendance by reaching their rooms at the Rome Cavalieri. They did not respond to requests for comment.
“What I often counsel clients is state AGs are enormously important. You can’t neglect them. You have to go right to them… having a game plan put in place is really important,” Cook said during a webinar for the Federalist Society last year.
Gillers, the NYU professor, said he doesn’t fault private companies for seeking to influence state officials.
“I don’t blame them,” he said. “I blame the attorneys general for going. They should just say no.”
