Nick Arama writes for RedState.com about U.S. Rep. James Comer’s new probe into the work of “climate czar” John Kerry.
The House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into Special Envoy for Climate Kerry for frequently meeting with climate and environmental activists. Comer demanded unreacted documents and communication related to Kerry’s “collusion with leftist environmental groups,” as well as information about Kerry’s secretive office, known as SPEC, and the payroll. He’s looking for everything since Kerry came in three years ago and demanding that they turn it over by Feb. 21.
Comer was looking particularly at meetings of the “Kitchen Cabinet.”
Comer said these meetings with leftist groups went “far beyond normal briefings and raise questions regarding possible conflicts of interests involving SPEC staff’s ties to these groups regarding climate finance investments.”
“Documents received by the Committee illustrate that the coordination and briefings are anything but ordinary—a two-way street exists for the purposes of obtaining ‘off the record’ information, receiving climate finance consultation, and influencing U.S. foreign policy positions,” the chairman continued.
Communications reviewed by the committee, Comer said, show groups asking for and receiving consultation from the climate envoy office on “strategic guidance for navigating ‘funding gap[s]’ for climate-related finance action” that could be used to support “possible wealth transfers or insider dealings.”
Comer said he was concerned about all the “off the record” discussions with these groups.
“The Committee has learned these groups will go as far to hire independent consultants to provide funding opportunities designated for placement of U.S. taxpayer dollars—all while receiving preferential treatment from Envoy Kerry, the SPEC Office, and the State. Department who distribute taxpayer dollars to fund their projects,” Comer said.
Comer said that the SPEC Office hasn’t released any information related to ethical or financial disclosures in regard to anyone they may have hired for the past three years. The SPEC has a huge annual budget of about $13.9 million, and Kerry can hire 45 staffers. Yet there appears to have been no compliance with any oversight measures, which raises a lot of questions about potential conflicts of interest or influence peddling.
