--- title: New York AG: Rex Tillerson Used An Email Alias at Exxon description: The New York Attorney General's office said that it found Tillerson had used an alias email address from at least 2008 through 2015 canonical: https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-14T06:11:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:49:34.757Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rex Tillerson Allegedly Used an Email Alias to Discuss Climate Change og:description: Investigators are asking whether Exxon misled the public about climate change og:url: https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt953f7aeca3dd5bc3/6988be3e8e060130834698a2/gettyimages-648734050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-SECURITY-IMMIGRATION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rex Tillerson Allegedly Used an Email Alias to Discuss Climate Change twitter:description: Investigators are asking whether Exxon misled the public about climate change twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt953f7aeca3dd5bc3/6988be3e8e060130834698a2/gettyimages-648734050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rex Tillerson Used an Email Alias at Exxon to Discuss Climate Change, Says New York AG > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Karen Freifeld / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Karen Freifeld / Reuters Mar 14, 2017 6:11 AM UTC  U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the US Customs and Border Protection Press Room in the Reagan Building on March 6, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the US Customs and Border Protection Press Room in the Reagan Building on March 6, 2017 in Washington, DC.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Karen Freifeld / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Karen Freifeld / Reuters Mar 14, 2017 6:11 AM UTC U.S. Secretary of State [Rex Tillerson](http://time.com/4598499/rex-tillerson-donald-trump-exxon-mobil-climate-change/?iid=sr-link2), the former chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, used an alias email address while at the oil company to send and receive information related to climate change and other matters, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The attorney general’s office said in a letter on Monday that it found Tillerson had used an alias email address under the pseudonym “Wayne Tracker” from at least 2008 through 2015. Wayne is Tillerson’s middle name. The letter was sent to a New York state judge overseeing Schneiderman’s investigation into whether Exxon misled shareholders and the public about climate change. In a statement on Monday, Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said, “The email address, Wayne.Tracker@exxonmobil.com, is part of the company’s email system and was put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics.” Jeffers said the company had provided 2.5 million pages of documents in response to a subpoena from Schneiderman’s office and would respond to the claims in the letter in court filings. A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter. The letter, seen by Reuters, said Exxon had not previously disclosed the alias account. It asked the judge to order Exxon to explain whether documents from the “Wayne Tracker” email and 34 additional accounts assigned to other Exxon executives and board members had been preserved. The letter said that Exxon had produced some 60 documents bearing the “Wayne Tracker” email but never said it was used by Tillerson for relevant communications at Exxon. It asked the court to order Exxon to identify whether any other email accounts were used by Tillerson. “Exxon’s top executives, and in particular, Mr. Tillerson, have made multiple representations that are at the center of OAG’s (attorney general’s office) investigation of potentially false or misleading statements to investors and the public,” the letter said. The case is People of the State of New York v PricewaterhouseCoopers and Exxon Mobil Corporation, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 451962/2016. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/"},"headline":"Rex Tillerson Used an Email Alias at Exxon to Discuss Climate Change, Says New York AG","datePublished":"2017-03-14T06:11:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:49:34.757Z","description":"Investigators are looking into whether Exxon misled shareholders and the public about climate change","url":"https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/","keywords":["White House","onetime","Rex Tillerson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt953f7aeca3dd5bc3/6988be3e8e060130834698a2/gettyimages-648734050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Karen Freifeld / Reuters"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt953f7aeca3dd5bc3/6988be3e8e060130834698a2/gettyimages-648734050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-SECURITY-IMMIGRATION","caption":"US-POLITICS-SECURITY-IMMIGRATION","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4700576/rex-tillerson-used-email-alias-exxon-climate-change-investigation/","name":"Rex Tillerson Used an Email Alias at Exxon to Discuss Climate Change, Says New York AG"}}]}] ```