A Wisconsin State Senate special committee on oversight is sending a clear message to Attorney General Josh Kaul: end the use of privately funded Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAGs), particularly those whose salaries and benefits are paid by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
After reviewing thousands of documents to evaluate the SAAG program in Wisconsin and elsewhere, the Special Committee on Oversight of the Department of Justice (WI DOJ) outlined their recommendations in a 165 page report published on Tuesday. Chief among them is a “formal legislative resolution” concluding that the state DOJ’s use of SAAGs paid by third-party sources is both “unlawful” and “unethical.”
Following hearings on the matter, the committee emphasized their wider concerns about the program’s use:
“We are deeply troubled by the Department of Justice’s practice of allowing volunteer attorneys paid by out-of-state interest groups to prosecute Wisconsinites. … The lack of transparency is astonishing, and the taxpayers of Wisconsin have a right to that transparency. The Department of Justice is not for sale in Wisconsin.” (Emphasis added)
State Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), who chaired the committee, underscored the gravity of the concerns and the committee’s continued intention to press further:
“It is clear that Attorney General Kaul is weaponizing the power vested in him by the people of Wisconsin to further partisan interests with the help of out-of-state billionaires. The Senate is not done looking into this matter.”
The Latest Stage in Wisconsin’s SAAG Saga
The report follows the State Senate’s December 2025 announcement launching a special committee investigating the WI DOJ’s use of privately funded environmental legal fellows – an investigation that built on long-founded concerns about the program, both in Wisconsin and across the country.
When announcing the investigation, Special Committee Chair Felzkowski emphasized the wider goals of the investigation:
“Wisconsinites deserve a Department of Justice that acts for them, not against them. … This is not about politics, it’s about transparency and good governance.”
The report’s findings validated those concerns. It raises issues under Wisconsin ethics laws and statutes, and notes that a complaint alleging AG Kaul unlawfully accepted free legal services remains pending before the Wisconsin Ethics Commission — 412 days and counting. That prolonged inaction makes the committee’s recommendations more urgent.
The report also warns that SAAG program creates “structural dependence on outside interests.” Bloomberg-funded SAAGs are frequently deployed specifically in environmental litigation, including climate lawsuits against major energy companies. The report explains why this is a problem:
“Key contract terms create an imbalance that suggests outside influence on DOJ. This includes provisions allowing the external funder to withdraw a SAAG on short notice while requiring DOJ to ‘confer’ and attempt resolution before termination. In the Committee’s view, that structure constrains DOJ’s practical ability to direct or remove embedded counsel and creates incentives to align work with the funder’s priorities.”(Emphasis added)
The committee’s interest in Wisconsin’s use of SAAGs is not the only instance of in-state organizations sounding the alarm.
In February 2025, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance sued the WI DOJ over its hiring of Bloomberg-funded attorneys, arguing the program gives outside interests undue influence over agricultural and environmental issues. A state court denied AG Kaul’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit last August, keeping the case alive.
A Questionable History
The SAAG program has long raised fundamental questions about transparency and governance. Legal experts and lawmakers have warned that privately funded attorneys general blur the lines between public service and private interests – giving entities like the Bloomberg-funded State Energy & Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) at New York University (NYU) Law School to have undue influence in state’s legal systems.
Concerns have reached the federal level, too. Last July, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced a formal investigation into the NYU’s SEEIC:
“The role of an attorney general is vital to America’s legal system … The circumstances surrounding the State Impact Center raise questions as to whether participating state attorneys general are acting on independent judgment to best serve the interests of their states’ citizens.”
Bottom Line: The Wisconsin Senate’s report is a clear call to action. AG Kaul should end his department’s use of privately-funded SAAGs— and use this moment to show that Wisconsin’s DOJ answers to its citizens, not to billionaire-backed outside interests.
