James Varney at RCP: The State Department Is Refusing to Provide Any Information About John Kerry's Globetrotting and His Meetings With Foreigners

This is maddening.

There is no government authority where the government acts as a lawless criminal.

John Kerry leads an international jet-set life that might exhaust a runway model. If President Biden's special envoy for climate was not in Washington or relaxing at his mansion near Nantucket Harbor, he could be found in Brazil, Panama, the Bahamas, or Germany. And that's just in February and March.

While Kerry trumpets his meetings and appearances around the world, the State Department wraps the rest of his efforts in a cloak of secrecy usually reserved for CIA black box operations. It has refused to specify lists of people he is meeting with and who is advising him as he circles the globe. His office has stonewalled requests for budget and staffing information from legislators and government watchdog groups. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year by RealClearInvestigations for a breakdown on how the climate envoy's roughly $16.5 million 2022 budget was spent, the State Department said it could not comply with the request until April 2025, months after both the 2024 election and the expiration of President Biden's current term.

The secrecy surrounding Kerry's work is reaching a boiling point with the threat of a congressional subpoena.

Frustrated that Kerry's office ignored two previous requests for detailed information about its budget when his party was in the minority, Republican Rep. James Comer, who now heads the House Oversight Committee, sent what he labeled a final courtesy letter on April 25 and added that a subpoena would accompany the next request if Kerry's "powerful, unchecked position" continued to hide the information.

"The State Department has not provided any meaningful updates to Committee staff inquiries on the status of producing these documents," Comer wrote. "Envoy Kerry is engaging in activities that skirt congressional authority, threaten foreign policy under the guise of climate advocacy, and could undermine economic health. Yet, Envoy Kerry and his office are refusing to be transparent about their activities, spending, and staffing with the Committee -- and the American people."

Biden, who has identified climate change as the single greatest threat facing the United States, named Kerry the nation's first "special envoy for climate" on his first day in office in 2021.

His precise job description is difficult to determine, although Kerry has been given a seat on the White House national security team, and it is commonly referred to as a "cabinet level" position -- even though it did not require Senate confirmation.

Since taking office, Kerry has been indefatigable in attending conferences and meetings in far-flung posts and glittering capitals. His office has sent out his pronouncements to the press and copies of his public remarks from places such as Hanoi, Dhaka, London, Cairo (twice) and, last month, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But almost nothing is known about discussions and potential agreements made at his private meetings.

Of course he's meeting with Klaus Schwab. They all do.

Given the Biden administration's penchant for issuing sweeping executive orders, especially regarding the climate, Republicans worry that Kerry's undefined position could translate into unchecked power to commit the United States to binding agreements with foreign powers. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions about the precise nature of Kerry's work, and whether he was authorized to negotiate treaties on behalf of the United States.

"John Kerry continues to negotiate deals with foreign governments, including the Chinese Communist Party, that potentially undermine the United States' interests," Comer wrote, without the envoy's providing any detail about the nature or scope of those deals or whether any have been approved.

posted by Ace at 03:00 PM

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