by John Solomon
Lee Zeldin alleges that eight nonprofit "cutouts" were used to route billions to former Obama-Biden cronies.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he has made several criminal referrals after uncovering a major political enrichment scandal that routed billions in Biden-era green energy grants to Democrat cronies. “It's about self-dealing,” Zeldin tells Just the News.
Zeldin said he has canceled or stopped about $29 billion in EPA grants – including one for $2 billion to a nonprofit tied to longtime Georgia Democrat election activist and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – after unmasking a series of pass-through groups used to route taxpayer monies to the politically connected.
“As you look through all of these pass-through entities, you're seeing so many connections to former Obama and Biden administration officials and Democratic donors, people who were former Cabinet members, other high-ranking administration officials,” he said during a wide-ranging interview Monday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Zeldin: "Blatant waste and abuse.”
Zeldin said he has referred several of the transactions to the EPA inspector general, the agency’s chief watchdog, and the Justice Department for possible prosecution or further investigation. “Those referrals have been made,” he said.
Zeldin said some of the allegations have their roots in legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, when Congress and the White House were all in Democrat hands. “They included all of this funding in this so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. And then they would work with these different agencies of the Biden administration to get it out to their unqualified friends. The whole thing just feels criminal,” he said. “[…] This is clearly something that falls into the category of blatant waste and abuse.”
Zeldin has repeatedly singled out the Biden administration's $2 billion grant to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit tied to the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abrams. The funds were awarded in 2024 to finance "residential decarbonization," which was an effort to replace gas furnaces and other appliances with electric ones.
Abrams reportedly "played a pivotal role" in establishing the group, according to Fox News.
The award came under scrutiny after it was revealed Power Forward Communities had reported only $100 the year before the award. The Trump administration's EPA announced in February 2025 it was taking measures to get the money back as part of an overall effort to claw back funding rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden administration.
Abrams, who worked for a group called Vitalizing De Soto that was tied to Power Forward, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying the grant was intended to help homeowners to buy eco-friendly appliances.
“Based on that program, a coalition of organizations – famous organizations – came together and said to the EPA, 'if we can do this here, we can do this for millions more Americans,’” Abrams explained in a 2025 interview on MSNBC. “’Let us invest the money of America in lowering the cost for Americans.’”
Group says Biden shoveled billions to left-wing interest groups on exiting the White House
Judicial Watch has sued to try to get more information about the grant. "As the Biden administration was collapsing in 2024, it lawlessly rushed out billions in cash to left-wing interest groups in a way that encouraged fraud and abuse. The Trump EPA team should disclose and expose every single document about this massive Biden corruption scandal,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Zeldin’s quest for accountability began in spring 2025 when his agency revealed that Biden rushed out $20 billion in the greenhouse gas reduction fund to be held in an account by the New York-based Citibank, with just eight nonprofits having the right to spend it.
EPA asked the IG to investigate, providing in its letter several transactions that raised concerns, including that:
- Jahi Wise, the former director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, “personally oversaw” a $5 billion grant to his previous employer;
- The $2 billion was given to the Abrams-tied Power Forward Communities.
- Young, Gifted & Green was awarded $20 million, even though its CEO applied for funding while serving on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
You can read the EPA's letter here.
The $20 billion in funding has been canceled, but it is tied up now in federal court litigation. To date, no major criminal prosecutions have been brought against grant recipients.
But EPA has released recent information indicating that career EPA officials were deeply suspicious of the Biden administration’s rushed effort to give the $20 billion to groups with little history of handling major federal business and with deep political ties.
“Comments from the panel of government career staffers during the application review process highlighted concerns over handing billions of American tax dollars to these groups in addition to the lack of financial background to handle such large sums of money,” the agency recently wrote.
A federal judge initially blocked Zeldin’s efforts and allowed the groups to access the money. Then a three-judge appeals panel sided with EPA. The full DC Circuit Court of Appeals is currently reviewing the case, and it could eventually head to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Zeldin said he is confident that when all litigation is complete most of the $29 billion in grants he has flagged and blocked will be returned to the Treasury as savings for taxpayers.
“We're not taking money from left-wing NGOs to give them to right-wing NGOs,” he said. “This is about getting that money back to the taxpayer. This is about making sure that that money coming through an agency like EPA doesn't have any amount of waste and abuse, that there's a zero tolerance for it."
John Solomon
Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/epa-boss-made-criminal-referrals-alleging-democrat-self
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