Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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A pair of emails circulating through the office of Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has one conservative group wondering what the former presidential candidate and his surrogates have planned, or are potentially hiding.

Fox News and Protect the Public Trust reported Friday that they had, through a records request, uncovered messages sent from staff to Kerry that indicated there was some form of climate-related spending or policy that staff members believed should remain “off paper.”

All names were redacted from the documents according to a different report from Fox that was published on the Protect the Public Trust website.

However, a March 9 message revealed that Kerry’s senior finance director had recommended to colleagues that a briefing with Kerry occur either over-the-phone or in-person because of changes to the coming fiscal year’s budget.

“I would also suggest a call or meeting soon with JK to update him on FY22 and 23, focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper,” the email reads.

According to Fox, a second email, one from March 4, suggests the special meeting was in response to changes to the budget made by the White House National Security Council (NSC).

“It turns out NSC just shared with us today some late-breaking changes on a couple of the FY23 climate numbers,” one official wrote to another in a separate email.

The meaning behind these unintentionally cryptic emails could take any number of forms, and it is possible the entire exchange was wholly innocent; but Protect the Public Trust complains that the entire enterprise smacks of secrecy, which arouses suspicion and runs contrary to the openness the Biden administration has frequently promised.  

“Looking at the State Department’s response to this request, the American public would be hard-pressed to believe it is part of the most transparent and most ethical administration in history, as the Biden Administration continually claims,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told Fox. “When an official says they will have a discussion with John Kerry focusing on ‘all the elements we can’t put on paper,’ what other interpretation could a reasonable person have than that they are attempting to sidestep federal records and transparency laws?”

Chamberlain and PPT took particular exception to the number of names that were redacted from the emails.

“It hardly seems in the public interest, in fact, it appears the antithesis of serving the public interest, to hide the names of government officials who are communicating with controversial outside activist organizations that are attempting to influence government policy,” Chamberlain said.

He later added, “State’s attempts to conceal the identities of the officials participating in these conversations was so excessive they first attempted to conceal the name of the person whose documents we requested in the first place.”