The House Oversight Committee is attempting to siphon details of the inner workings of John Kerry’s super-secret Climate office in a move being hailed by one watchdog.
Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said he’s had to take Kerry to court over his lack of transparency.
Now House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is threatening his subpoena power to see exactly what Kerry, the special envoy for climate, is up to.
“The work of the American public is supposed to be performed in the open and that obligation should apply above all to an office with the power of John Kerry’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate,” Chamberlain told the Herald Tuesday.
Kerry has told the Herald a listing of his entire staff will not be shared until October of 2024 — a month before the next presidential election. The Herald made that request via the Freedom of Information Act.
Comer doesn’t want to wait that long.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Comer requested details of Kerry’s Climate Office budget, a list of employees, communications with third parties and travel records.
A State Department spokesman, responding for Kerry’s Climate staff, said that “as a general matter,” they “do not comment on communication with Congress.”
The spokesman added he could “confirm we have received the letter and will respond accordingly. The State Department is committed to working with Congressional committees with jurisdiction over U.S. foreign policy to accommodate their need for information to help them conduct oversight for their legitimate legislative purposes.”
Kerry’s office did not respond to a Herald request for comment on the status of the Herald FOIA.
But Comer, The Hill reports, warned that if Kerry once again dodges the request, “the Committee will have to consider other means, including compulsory process.”
Comer adds that President Biden has given Kerry a powerful post that did not require Senate confirmation.
Chamberlain accused Kerry’s office of “evading federal records laws, and the outsourcing of traditional diplomacy to outside activists.”
He applauded Comer’s push for transparency, saying he’s “thankful that the Chairman of the Oversight Committee also continues to demand greater transparency from the SPEC office.”
As the Herald recently reported, Kerry used a Gmail account and his office was cagy about sharing titles with the outside world. Those documents raise serious questions about how Kerry runs his office and how the Climate crew remains chilly toward transparency.
Kerry’s office also didn’t respond to last week’s vandalism by climate goons who deflated tires in Kerry’s Beacon Hill neighborhood all in the name of global warming.
