WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly released emails show that an Energy Department adviser and former fundraiser for President Barack Obama was actively involved in discussions about a loan received by a failed California solar company, despite pledging to recuse himself because his wife’s law firm represented the company.
Steve Spinner, who helped monitor a clean energy loan guarantee program, was a top Obama fundraiser in 2008 and is raising money for the president’s reelection campaign.
Emails released by the administration in response to congressional investigators show that Spinner was actively involved in a planning a 2009 trip by Vice President Joe Biden to Solyndra LLC for a groundbreaking ceremony. Biden did not go on the trip but spoke via satellite. Solyndra declared bankruptcy last month despite receiving a $528 million federal loan.
