Top Biden-Harris Climate Official Gets Off Easy After Conflict-of-Interest Violations
- August 30, 2024
Thomas Catenacci, Free Beacon
Joseph Goffman, a senior Biden-Harris administration official who crafted some of the EPA’s most high-profile climate initiatives targeting the manufacturing and automobile sectors, repeatedly violated financial conflict-of-interest rules, his agency’s top watchdog said in a scathing report published this week.
Goffman was found to have owned tens of thousands of dollars in companies directly associated with multiple regulations that he, as head of the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, helped write, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General said in its report. He also withheld that information, failing to meet federal ethical obligations.
The inspector general ultimately referred the results of its probe into Goffman to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia earlier this summer. The watchdog, though, gave its findings to the office’s civil division, opting against making a criminal referral. Goffman remains an assistant administrator at the EPA.
Federal prosecutors accepted the findings but declined to investigate any further.
Such a referral is a rare step for an inspector general to take, even after finding wrongdoing, underscoring the seriousness of the violations. The decision not to pursue the matter further, however, suggests investigators were happy to give Goffman a slap on the wrist for his ethical lapses.
“The Inspector General’s report reveals that, even after Joe Goffman committed an admitted violation of his recusal statement and was granted a free pass by ethics officials, he appeared to play fast and loose with his ethical obligations,” said Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public’s Trust, an organization that has filed multiple ethics complaints against Goffman. “Inspectors General do not frivolously refer matters to the U.S. Attorneys Office or broader DOJ.”
“They do so only when they believe there is a genuine concern that misconduct occurred,” Chamberlain continued. “Mr. Goffman’s tenure as the administration’s climate agenda lead perfectly illustrates the Biden-Harris administration’s abusive relationship with the public’s trust whenever it conflicts with their policy, or in this case personal, agenda.”