The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — yes, the agency that’s supposed to make sure the air and water is clean — has been caught red-handed in what, at least on the outside, looks like one of the most brazen and high-dollar left-wing political payouts of the century.
In what the Trump EPA described in a letter to the agency inspector general’s office as “an unprecedented arrangement,” Biden-era bureaucrats used private Citibank bank accounts to squirrel away $20 billion in taxpayer funds — that’s right, billion with a “b” — much of which is earmarked for lefty “pass-through” organizations the agency itself determined “lacked basic financial competency.”
This $20 billion was ostensibly meant for “green banks” to finance all sorts of nice-sounding “climate justice” and green energy projects — but instead it steered billions upon billions to groups deeply tied into the Democratic Party machinery.
For instance, the current and former chairmen of one of the pass-throughs, called the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC), are both Democratic Party donors, each cutting sizable checks to Kamala Harris’ ill-fated 2024 run. CGC was on track to get $5 billion from Biden’s EPA.
In another case, a left-wing consortium tied to Stacey Abrams’s voter mobilization group was awarded $2 billion. In its letter to the IG, Trump’s EPA noted the former administration itself determined these groups “lacked basic financial competency,” but earmarked the cash anyway.
So, here we have billions in taxpayer funds being directed to Democratic insiders and donors — paging DOGE! No wonder bureaucrats shoveled this money into a seemingly untouchable Citibank account in the waning days of the Biden administration.
One former Biden EPA official was reportedly caught on tape gleefully comparing it to “tossing gold bars off the Titanic.”
Taken together, this looks like the left-wing political payout of the century. Rarely is rank political patronage so nakedly on display.
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI are currently asking tough questions of career EPA officials about these “gold bars,” but it’s unclear if the Trump EPA will be able to claw back any of the funds.
Accountability — after four years of virtually none of it — would not only be a victory for taxpayers, but also for good journalism.
It’s important to remember we’re only talking about this Biden EPA scandal because of the tireless efforts of one journalist. Long before the EPA inspector general, DOJ, the FBI, or even the Department of Government Efficiency, were alerted to this political payout, a reporter named Nick Pope was on the case.
Back in November 2023, when the Biden EPA announced it was handing out billions to so-called “green banks” in the name of “climate justice” and other high causes, Pope thought this might be the perfect cover for the Democratic Party to enrich itself at taxpayer expense.
No slouch, Pope dug in, and soon he saw smoke. Huge, billowing clouds of smoke. His first piece, published that same month, laid out in detail how the “green banks” on the shortlist for Biden EPA funding “all feature numerous individuals on their boards who work for influential organizations aligned with the Democratic Party or previously worked for Democratic administrations.”
But this was no one-off. Pope followed up when the EPA announced it was handing billions to the very groups he had just exposed as essentially being Democratic Party pass-throughs.
Government watchdog groups were put on alert. Congress eventually got involved, demanding answers from the Biden EPA about how something like this could even happen. Pope’s colleague Adam Pack left his own mark, first reporting about the billions going to the liberal consortium affiliated with Abrams’ get-out-the-vote efforts.
Even after the FBI got involved, Pope didn’t rest, pushing out yet another hard-hitting investigation exposing how heads of the groups slated to get billions in Biden bucks “collectively made hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal political donations to Democratic candidates and organizations in recent years.”
If Trump is actually able to claw back these “gold bars,” make sure to thank Nick Pope. Heck, even if we don’t get the money back, thank him anyway. Good journalism should be rewarded even if the ultimate outcome isn’t exactly what we wanted.
Besides, they don’t give out Pulitzers for exposing Democratic corruption, now do they?
While trust in media plummets, and the legacy press continues its liberal bootlicking, it’s even more important we support good journalists, like Pope and the rest of the Daily Caller News Foundation team, who are unafraid to report the truth and hold the powerful accountable.
Mike Bastasch is editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Good job to Nick, Adam and you too, Mike. It’s heartening to see that there a few “real” journalists exist who do the tough, detailed work of journalism. Keep up the good work, all of you.
And this is just one of their “slush” funds and just one example of how people make money off the “Green” scams and government money. Biden’s 3/4 trillion dollar “Inflation Reduction Act” that Biden admitted had nothing to do with inflation, but was actually the biggest “green” spending bill in American history. The bill is nothing but another grifting fund for projects and companies run by Democrat donors. The bill had allocated 5.5 billion in grants for EV’s and electric buses. As one example, look at a company that Biden and Harris publicly promoted; the EV bus maker, Proterra. Even with tens of millions in government grants Proterra went bankrupt last year, but not until Jennifer Granholm (our nation’s Energy Secretary) and others made millions. Granholm made 1.6 million off of their stock. Go look it up. It’s nothing more than our money grifted to Democrat owned “Green” businesses that take the money in “pump and dump” schemes. The companies, and the “in the know” stockholders and owners profit when government money pumps the stock price up and then the owners, and the insider info stockholders dump the stock before the government money or subsidies dry up. Remember Solyndra under Obama? Same deal except that was a 1/2 billion dollar taxpayer cost. Then there’s all the government money sent to supporter NGO’s, like the 2 billion sent to Stacy Abrams’ “Green” non-profit that was previously worth $100. All government funding of NGO’s needs to be banned because it’s all a hoax to make the political class even richer with your money. And that’s why the Democrats and rich politicians don’t care about the never ending government “money printing” that is driving inflation and bankrupting middle class Americans.
Seething upon reading this account. The donkeys should be thrown out now! Throw them out of Congress and out of DC. I hope Mr. Musk and President Trump get them by the throat. Empty their bank accounts the DemonRats.
They have become the Party of never ending corruption, they should be looked into especially those billions Biden shipped out right before his departure from office, all those who received tax payers monies as well as those who authorized it for their radical democrat uses not approved should face jail terms for stealing money from tax payers, stop voting these thieves back into office.
Everything about Biden and his band of democrat tax thiefs are coming out now, they wasted one trillion dollars of your tax dollars on DEI programs,now these same democrats led by Chuck Schumer want to shut the government down to hide the waste they allowed to happen from being made public.Democrats could care less about the debt issues they caused, when it come voting time ask yourself then, what has these democrat fat cat senator’s done to lower our National debt? they stick out their greedy corrupt paws for paycheck’s but did nothing to stop the Biden attacks on wasteful government spending, Mark Kelly an Schumer wasted so much tax dollars they should be reelected again. That’s the best they got “shut down the government”.