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White House: We did not ‘cherry-pick’ Solyndra documents
The White House has rejected allegations by House Republicans that it “cherry-picked” select documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra in an effort to avoid fully complying with a GOP subpoena.
“The number of documents produced — which you characterize as small — is not evidence of ‘cherry-picking’; it simply demonstrates what we have said all along … decisions on the solar loan guarantee were made on the merits by the Department of Energy,” White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said in a letter Tuesday to Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Republicans blasted the White House last week for not fully complying with the scope of the committee’s subpoena, which Republicans on the investigative panel issued last month in a party-line vote. The White House provided 136 pages of documents in four categories last month that officials say meet the “legitimate oversight interests” of congressional investigators.
Ruemmler, in her letter, said the White House is willing to discuss the subpoena further with committee Republicans.
“We are willing to move the discussion forward in a productive manner to the extent that any legitimate issues remain, but cannot do so if the committee continues to refuse to engage with us reasonably and in good faith on substance with appropriate consideration for the legitimate interests of a co-equal branch of government," Ruemmler, who was joined by White House counsel Cynthia Hogan, said in the letter.
The White House has long argued that the GOP subpoena, which requests all internal Solyndra communications, is overly broad and impinges on executive-branch interests.
Ruemmler said the White House undertook a “good-faith search” for Solyndra documents in the categories it identified. But Republicans argue there are more documents that need to be turned over.
The White House acknowledged that there are likely more Solyndra documents, but said they are mostly news clippings that aren’t relevant to the GOP investigation.
“While it is certainly true that there are internal White House [Office of the Vice President] documents covered by the subpoena that have not been produced, that is because the subpoenas issued by the Committee are extraordinarily broad and sweep in categories of documents that are not tied to the Committee’s legitimate oversight interests,” Ruemmler said in the letter to full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s investigative panel.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in September about two years after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration.
The bankruptcy set off a firestorm in Washington, with Republicans raising questions about President Obama’s green energy agenda and alleging that the loan guarantee was approved to benefit campaign donors. The White House strongly denies those allegations.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel, led by Stearns, are conducting an investigation into the loan guarantee. The investigation has uncovered more than 185,000 pages of documents from various agencies and the White House.
The investigation has not found evidence that the administration approved the loan guarantee for political reasons. But it has uncovered uncomfortable details for the White House, including internal disagreements about the wisdom of approving the loan guarantee.
You can read The Hill's primer on Solyndra here.
