WASHINGTON — An Energy Department adviser and former fundraiser for President Barack Obama pushed to make sure that the administration completed a half-billion loan to a California solar company, despite pledging to recuse himself because his wife’s law firm represented the company.
Newly released e-mails show that Steve Spinner, a former Obama fundraiser who helped monitor a clean-energy loan guarantee program, was more actively involved in a loan for Solyndra LLC than administration officials have acknowledged.
The e-mails, released by the administration in response to congressional investigators, show that Spinner was actively involved in a planned September 2009 trip by Vice President Joe Biden to Solyndra’s Fremont, Calif., headquarters for a groundbreaking ceremony. Biden did not go on the trip but spoke via satellite. Solyndra declared bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million loan.
In the e-mails, Spinner, who founded a sports fitness company, repeatedly pushed Energy Department and White House budget officials to ensure that the loan was finalized before Biden’s planned trip. The loan closing was announced at the groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 4, 2009.
“How . . . hard is this? What is he waiting for?” Spinner wrote in an Aug. 28, 2009, e-mail to a DOE official. “I have the OVP (Office of the Vice President) and WH (the White House) breathing down my neck on this. They are getting itchy to get involved.” Later that day, Spinner asked the same DOE official to “walk over there and force him to give you the answer.” The e-mails refer to a DOE loan guarantee official who was evaluating the Solyndra loan.
