OPINION: John Kerry Shows Naked Contempt in Refusing to Share Climate Office Identities

By Joe Dwinell

BOSTON (Boston Herald/TNS) — Outgoing climate jet-setter John Kerry is again showing his “naked contempt” for transparency by refusing to reveal his staff in an office that has operated in the dark since its inception.

Kerry is now being moved to President Joe Biden’s campaign committee with longtime Democratic strategist John Podesta replacing him.

Kerry informed the Herald in a “final” response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in July of 2022, that the full identity of his office staff will never be released.

“This action closes your request in this office,” he declared via the State Department’s Statutory and Compliance Division.

The only update to the FOIA is the addition of six names of office employees out of 27, and those came after the Herald pointed out two of them were already on Kerry’s climate website.

The annual payroll of $4.3 million remains the same, as previously reported.

Yet, one of the many names still hidden includes the “Director of Communications” who pulls down top office pay of $186,680 a year. Four others also earn that lofty salary.

Federal watchdog Michael Chamberlain, director Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Herald Sunday Kerry is being contemptuous.

“This combination of secrecy and arrogance has been the hallmark of this powerful State Department unit,” Chamberlain said. “To suggest it would be a violation of privacy to name the Director of Communications, for example — a person making more $180,000 per year to, ironically, craft public messaging, shows naked contempt for taxpayers.

“The American public funds the paycheck of every person in this office, and they’re entitled to know whom they’re paying and what for,” he added.

The 27 entries include brief titles — from “policy analyst” to “senior advisor” — and bi-weekly pay. Those now named are Rick Duke and Sue Biniaz, deputy special envoys; Elliot Diringer, senior policy advisor; Leonardo Martinez, senior advisor; and David Livingston and Jesse Dylan Young, policy analysts.

Kerry is never listed by title or name.

The State Department’s Statutory and Compliance Division adds in the final letter to the Herald that posting the names of all the federal employees “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of an individual’s personal privacy.”

That standard did not stop former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh from sharing his staff names, titles, and pay last summer. Walsh, the former mayor of Boston and now NHL Players’ Union executive director, earned $203,100 as Labor Secretary.

Kerry, who falls under the State Department but has told the Herald he only reports to President Biden, has never been forthcoming since being named Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in 2021.

Kerry, a failed presidential Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State and Massachusetts senator, has a long history of preferring to fly under the radar — and on private jets.

The Herald is appealing this latest flouting of FOIA.