State attorneys general, who are the top law enforcement officials in each state, have the final say on which cases to pursue or not. That power has not gone unnoticed by lobbyists. CBS News got an inside look at one lavish retreat at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, where businesses and trade groups paid for access. Some of the companies are under investigation by state attorneys general, but still give large donations so they can get one-on-one access to AGs to state their case.
It's perfectly legal for a company under investigation by a state attorney general to give money to the political associations for attorneys general that fund AG campaigns. In return, it's legal for those associations to give access to company lobbyists.
Rubbing shoulders with a state attorney general doesn't come cheap. To get an invite to a four-day retreat, lobbyists had to fork over $125,000.
The dress code? "Resort casual."
On a hidden camera, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr can be heard saying, "We can't do what we do without your help."
Selling access to events like this has helped the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, raise more than $20 million in the last year and a half – twice as much as their Democratic counterparts.
"Look, the other side has been very energized and there's no two ways about it," Carr could be heard saying.
CBS News reviewed 88 donations over $50,000 or more to RAGA and found 46 of those donors had matters under consideration by a state attorney general or had recently settled. Others needed help from the AG community. The NRA, for instance, made a $700,000 donation to RAGA four weeks after the Las Vegas shooting.
It was a six-fold increase from the previous year and came as even
