Lawyer who led GOP's Solyndra probe returns to lobby firm

The lawyer who led the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s 18-month probe of now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra’s $535 million federal loan guarantee is rejoining the lobby firm Patton Boggs.

Todd R. Harrison will be a partner in the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice group. He was previously a Patton Boggs partner from 2008 through 2011, when he left to become chief counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.

The Solyndra investigation Harrison spearheaded called the firm’s collapse a “cautionary tale” of political pressure and misguided policy. Though Republicans had long called the stimulus loan guarantee a kickback for an Obama campaign donation bundler, the report did not provide evidence to back up those claims.