House Dems blast GOP for releasing 'misleading and inaccurate' Solyndra emails

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee blasted Republicans for releasing a highly select set of emails on the Solyndra loan guarantee Wednesday, alleging that the documents paint an inaccurate picture of ties between a major fundraiser for President Obama and the White House.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the top Democrat on the investigative subcommittee, called the emails “misleading and inaccurate” in a blistering letter to top Republicans on the panel.

“We write to express our extreme concern over your selective release today of three e-mails in conjunction with the Solyndra investigation,” Waxman and DeGette wrote. “The e-mails you have released present a misleading and inaccurate account to the public. In fact, you have documents and communications in your possession that contradict the three e-mails you released today, yet you did not release them.”

Waxman said committee staff interviewed George Kaiser, a “bundler” for Obama’s campaign whose foundation invested in Solyndra, Tuesday for two hours about his involvement with Solyndra. Republican committee staff never revealed the interview to reporters Wednesday.

“Many e-mails were presented to Mr. Kaiser for his comment, including some of the e-mails you released. In key instances, he directly contradicted your interpretations of the documents you released today,” Waxman and DeGette said in the letter. “But you also failed to disclose this. This is wrong and an unfair smear of Mr. Kaiser.”

Waxman and DeGette said Kaiser stated during the interview with committee staff that he “never lobbied for Solyndra.”

“He said he did not ask anyone in the White House to intervene on behalf of Solyndra, and he did not urge Secretary Chu to take action on Solyndra’s loan guarantee application,” Waxman and DeGette said in the letter.

Earlier Wednesday, Republicans on the panel released several emails from Kaiser that appear to show he discussed the loan guarantee to the company at a meeting with White House officials.

Kaiser, in the emails released by Republicans, said Solyndra “came up” during a spring 2010 meeting with the White House. Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, also attended the meeting.

“[A] couple of weeks ago when Ken and I were visiting with a group of Administration folks in DC who are in charge of the Stimulus process (White House, not DOE) and Solyndra came up, every one of them responded simultaneously about their thorough knowledge of the Solyndra story, suggesting it was one of their prime poster children,” Kaiser wrote in a March 5, 2010, email to Steve Mitchell, an executive at venture capitalist firm Argonaut.

Waxman and DeGette, in their letter, contend that while Solyndra did come up at the Feb. 24, 2010, meeting, the meeting focused largely on plans to build a park powered by geothermal energy.

“[S]omeone in the room mentioned Solyndra, and Mr. Kaiser or Mr. Levit acknowledged their interest in the company. Mr. Kaiser said that the Administration staff knew about Solyndra and expressed a positive reaction to the company, which surprised him,” the letter from the Democrats said.

Waxman and DeGette said the February meeting included “six or seven Administration staff.”

Solyndra never came up at a March 2009 meeting with White House officials.

House Republicans allege that the administration approved the loan guarantee to Solyndra in 2009 in part because of Kaiser’s ties to the Obama campaign. The company went bankrupt in early September.

But the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigation — which has combed through more than 80,000 pages of administration documents — has found no evidence that the decisions to approve the loan guarantee and restructure the financing in February were influenced by politics.

Nor is there any evidence in the emails released Wednesday by House Republicans that the White House approved the loan guarantee based on politics. White House officials are not included on the emails and they were sent in 2010, well after the Energy Department finalized the loan guarantee.

Republicans argued Wednesday the emails show that Kaiser spoke with the White House about the Solyndra loan guarantee.

"The sampling of emails the Committee submitted to the White House clearly demonstrate that Solyndra was a topic of discussion between Mr. Kaiser and White House officials despite the Administration's repeated claims to the contrary," Republican committee spokesman Sean Bonyun said in a statement. "The underlying question is will the White House comply with the subpoena's noon deadline on Thursday, and if not, why are they so desperate to avoid turning over documents and complying with the subpoena? If they have nothing to hide, that would certainly be an easy way to end this investigation."

This story was updated at 10:55 p.m.