A watchdog group is suing climate czar John Kerry over his refusal to share details about his office staff until late 2024 — a response that violates a public records directive just sent by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland stressed to Biden administration department heads that “openness should prevail” when it comes to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
AG FOIA GUIDELINES
That is not the case with Kerry, who has told the Herald and now Protect the Public’s Trust not to expect details of who exactly works in his Climate Office until the eve of the 2024 presidential elections.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, called the delay “absurd.”
“This is some rich stuff coming from the self-declared ‘most transparent administration ever,’ ” the senator told the Herald Thursday.
Garland wrote in his March 15 memo that agencies should not “withhold information based merely on speculative or abstract fears or fears of embarrassment.” Kerry’s office declined to speak on the record Thursday to explain why it won’t hand over details of the Climate Office to the Herald until Oct. 1, 2024.
“Agencies should continue their efforts to remove barriers to requesting and accessing government records and to reduce FOIA processing backlogs,” Garland said in his memo, adding that “timely disclosure of records is also essential to the core purpose of FOIA.”
Protect the Public’s Trust said it is suing on that statement — pointing out that Kerry’s office has informed the group to expect details of his staffing by Nov. 18, 2024. That’s nearly two weeks after the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
“The American public is suffering from intense pain at the pump, rising inflation, and the specter of armed conflict in Europe. Yet the State Department is claiming the need to withhold records that could shed light on an office that is run by former presidential candidate and Secretary of State John Kerry until after the next Presidential election,” the watchdog group stated Thursday.
Sullivan, who has called for Kerry to be fired, added the nation’s first U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate must be hiding something.
“The fact that the State Department would claim it will take more than 3 years to fulfill a simple FOIA request is patently absurd. What are they hiding about John Kerry and his team? What’s his budget? How many staff does he have? Where is he traveling to — does he go to Iran? How much taxpayer money is this guy wasting?” Sullivan asked.
“Hard-working families are suffering right now as a result of the actions being taken by administration officials like our Special Climate Envoy, who spends his days jet-setting around the globe pushing an all-out assault on America’s energy sector and dramatically weakening America’s geostrategic advantages. The American people deserve answers,” Sullivan added.
The Herald has appealed to both the U.S. State Department Watchdog and now Garland’s office. So far, no response has been sent by either.
©2022 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
John Kerry has been a corrupt self serving professional politician since Viet Nam.
John Forbes Kerry is a corrupt American politician and diplomat who is currently the first United States special presidential envoy for climate Cons and Deceptions. The Democrat Party’s and John Kerry’s climate Cons and Deceptions are subjective NOT objective.
John Kerry and Jane Fonda should have been indicted during the Viet Nam era as TRAITORS!!!
They should have been HUNG, Drawn and quartered….
What else would one expect from a criminal, a charlatan and a fraud like Kerry???
“That is not the case with Kerry, who has told the Herald and now Protect the Public’s Trust not to expect details of who exactly works in his Climate Office until the eve of the 2024 presidential elections.”
I guess he feels that’s when his protection runs out. Have you ever seen a more crooked bunch of people than the modern-day Democrat Party? The politically elite have sunk to an all-time low—and they are proud of it. They demonstrate a total disregard for morals and ethics—they openly and brazenly break laws and scoff at any talk of holding them accountable000they lie, steal, and cheat—and the cherry on top for them is that they have die-hard voters who willingly support them and keep them in power.
The likes of Kerry are bad enough, but the brain-dead fools who attribute value and merit to these people are even worse.
We don’t need any made-up positiions for hack politicians to fill when this whole thing should fall under the Department of the Interior whose head should make compliance madatory. Ah, but we’re talking about the Jooohhnn Kerry for whom the rules applying to mere mortals need not apply. It’s time for the hot air to be taken out of his windsurfing board!
john kerry who btw served in vietnam as rush used to say.
this dirtball should be either in levunworth for life or executed for treason.