New York Attorney-General probing if company misled investors on impact of climate change when Secretary of State was its chief executive

NEW YORK (TIP): Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, may be questioned as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman expands his sweeping probe into whether Mr. Tillerson’s former employer, ExxonMobil, misled investors about the impact of climate change.

Mr. Schneiderman’s office considers the nation’s chief diplomat a central figure in a case that pits the ambitious Democrat against a Texas energy giant and has divided attorneys general nationwide.

It remains unclear whether he will ultimately force Mr. Tillerson to answer questions under oath, but he told The Associated Press he has the legal authority to question the secretary of state, who served as Exxon’s CEO until joining the Trump administration.

“We haven’t gotten to the point where that’s necessary, but yeah, we have the legal right to conduct depositions. I don’t know that we’re going to have to get to Mr. Tillerson, but sure,” Mr. Schneiderman said when asked whether he has the right to question Mr. Tillerson.

Mr. Schneiderman opened the Exxon investigation in November 2015, shortly after reaching a settlement with another fossil fuel giant, Peabody Coal. In that case, Mr. Schneiderman’s office determined that the coal company misled shareholders, regulators and the public about the company’s financial risks related to climate change.

Now, Mr. Schneiderman is using the subpoena power of his office to determine whether Exxon did the same.

After being forced to produce internal communications about the impact of climate change on its business, Exxon earlier this year acknowledged that Mr. Tillerson used the “Wayne Tracker” alias during email communications. The company says the alias was created to help the former CEO avoid a flood of messages after environmental activists obtained his actual email address.

Most of the “Tracker” emails have been deleted, Exxon says, citing the company’s practice of automatically deleting emails after a certain period of time. Exxon officials testified that the company allowed several months of Mr. Tillerson’s emails to be deleted even after Mr. Schneiderman’s office flagged them for preservation.

For now, Exxon says that many of the messages can be retrieved by collecting emails from those he communicated with.

The New York Attorney General’s office will depose nine Exxon witnesses in the coming weeks in a series of lower-level depositions in a chain that is ultimately expected to lead to Mr. Tillerson. The State Department declined to comment on Mr. Tillerson’s involvement in the Exxon probe. The secretary of state has retained a private attorney to represent him in the matter.

The judge presiding over Mr. Schneiderman’s investigation, New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager, has so far allowed the Attorney General to use his broad subpoena power to investigate Exxon. But he has been critical about both sides’ behaviour.