House Oversight requests transcribed interviews with Biden administration climate envoy

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is demanding transcribed interviews with employees in the Biden administration’s special presidential envoy for climate office as the committee continues its investigation into John Kerry‘s role.

Comer sent a letter to President Joe Biden‘s top climate diplomat, John Podesta, requesting an interview on his transition to assume Kerry’s responsibilities after he resigned from the envoy position in March to help Biden’s since-ended reelection campaign.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken allowed the department to release documents and communications on the transition after Comer wrote to the secretary on March 13 but the chairman desires an interview to clear up confusion on whether Podesta is a “replacement for the SPEC.”

“The Department has since released documents and communications regarding your
transition to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy — and the
released information supports concerns that the Biden Administration has taken steps to avoid the Senate confirmation process and to cloud transparency of the SPEC office’s activities,” Comer wrote Wednesday in a letter shared with the Washington Examiner. “Because we are aware of significant confusion across the Department related to your transition to your new role, we require your participation in a transcribed interview to examine your involvement in SPEC-related matters.”

In a second letter to Blinken sent Monday, Comer wrote that the committee would like to interview six high-level employees after the State Department provided documents with “unjustified redactions” and noted only three documents satisfied the committee’s request.

“In the 118th Congress, the Committee has expressed multiple concerns regarding the
composition of the SPEC office and its coordination with leftist environmental groups to the
Department, forcing the Committee to again consider the use of compulsory process to require a complete disclosure of the information originally requested by the Committee including SPEC staff names, titles, salaries, ethics disclosures, and financial disclosures,” Comer wrote in the letter shared with the Washington Examiner.

“We believe that members of your staff have information that will assist us in fully
understanding: the role, activities, and composition of the SPEC office; off-the-record meetings with leftist environmental groups; and actions of the Department to keep SPEC activities from the purview of Congress and the American people,” Comer continued.

The letters are part of a larger investigation into the climate envoy office over allegations that Kerry met frequently with climate and environmental activists. A communication provided to the Oversight Committee found several groups like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund received consultation from the 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.”

Despite Kerry’s high-profile travels to climate summits and his diplomatic engagements that sought to push a global transition from fossil fuels to green energy, the SPEC has remained relatively silent about its operations and staff members. The silence has drawn ire from Republicans who have demanded greater transparency from the State Department agency.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department and the SPEC for comment.