John Kerry’s secretive climate office discussed keeping plans off ‘paper,’ emails show
- August 19, 2022
A senior official in Kerry’s office suggested a meeting “focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper” in an email obtained by a watchdog group
Thomas Catenacci and Houston Keene, Fox News
Senior officials in Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry’s office discussed holding a meeting to ensure budget discussions were kept off “paper,” according to internal emails obtained in a records request and shared with Fox News Digital.
The SPEC office’s senior director for climate finance — whose name was redacted under the “personal privacy information” exemption — suggested to other officials in a March 9 email that a key briefing with Kerry should be held over the phone or in-person, according to documents that watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) shared with Fox News Digital. The briefing appeared to center around the office’s budget for fiscal year 2022 and 2023.
“I would also suggest a call or meeting soon with jk to update him on FY22 and 23, focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper,” the unnamed official told other staffers in the March 9 email.
“Looking at the State Department’s response to this request, the American public would be hard-pressed to believe it is part of the most transparent and most ethical administration in history, as the Biden Administration continually claims,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told FOX News Digital.
“When an official says they will have a discussion with John Kerry focusing on ‘all the elements we can’t put on paper,’ what other interpretation could a reasonable person have than that they are attempting to sidestep federal records and transparency laws? The actions in this case appear to reveal the administration’s claims of ethics and transparency to be merely lip-service,” he continued.
PPT obtained the emails after suing the State Department over their public records request.