Crooked Joe Biden strikes again.
He must be taking lessons from Hillary Clinton.

'Biden DOJ Moved on Election Night to Cover Up Alleged Solar Energy
Scandal that Cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions'

<https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/25/exclusive-crescent-dunes-biden-doj-moved-election-night-cover-up-alleged-solar-energy-scandal/>

'Outgoing President Joe Biden’s Justice Department moved on election
night on Nov. 5 to essentially ensure the cover-up of a potentially
massive green energy scandal, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

This story has tentacles back through, not just the Biden
administration, but all the way back to the Obama administration, and it
could be something that jeopardizes the broader green energy agenda and
the future of leftist solar projects on federal lands. At least one
congresswoman is already formally pressing the DOJ for answers, and more
members of Congress are likely to get involved soon. It could even have
major implications for the incoming administration’s energy policy.

On Nov. 5, at 5:20 p.m. ET, less than an hour before the first polls
closed and when it had become clear from the exit polls that Democrat
presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris was likely to lose,
an attorney with the Justice Department emailed lawyers for plaintiffs
in a qui tam lawsuit aimed at recouping significant losses the taxpayers
allegedly incurred from a failed solar plant in Nevada. A qui tam
lawsuit is when a private plaintiff sues on behalf of the U.S.
Government to recoup taxpayer dollars — often alleging fraud, misuse, or
theft of taxpayer dollars.

The email from the DOJ stated what plaintiffs started hearing through
the grapevine as the election neared and it became clear the Harris
campaign was in trouble. The email said that the DOJ intended to dismiss
a lawsuit that it had previously allowed to proceed, thereby
undercutting the private push to recoup significant losses for American
taxpayers.

“The United States intends to intervene in this case for the purpose of
dismissing the qui tam claims under 31 U.S.C. 3730(c)(2)(A),” Anthony
Gill, a trial lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division
Fraud Section, emailed attorneys for CMB Export, LLC, an EB-5 visa firm
that had filed the qui tam lawsuit in question. “The United States has
determined that dismissal is commensurate with the public interest and
that the matter does not warrant the continued expenditure of government
resources. The anticipated discovery and litigation obligations
associated with the continued litigation of this case will impose an
undue burden on the U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of
Energy, and U.S. Department of Justice.”

“We intend to file our motion this week,” Gill added in the email,
obtained by Breitbart News. “There is not more I can add to the United
States’ decision to seek dismissal under 3730(c)(2)(A), but feel free to
let us know if you have any questions.”

This decision was shocking to plaintiffs because it represented a major
reversal of the position the very same Biden Justice Department had
previously taken. The Justice Department had, after years of
inexplicable delays, previously declined to intervene in the qui tam
suit per a filing on June 1, 2023 — it took the Department years to
finally get to this point — and then the case was unsealed finally on
Jan. 24, 2024 — eleven months ago — after a battle on that front in
court. In laymen’s terms, what the Justice Department formally declining
to intervene in a qui tam suit and then the suit getting unsealed by the
court means is the plaintiffs in the qui tam suit can proceed with
litigation against the defendants.

This story begins back during Obama’s administration, when leftists and
environmentalists supercharged a crazed push towards so-called renewable
energy sources. The federal government under Obama backed what was
called the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project with $737 million in
guaranteed loans. The plant was a $1 billion project.

Ostensibly, what Crescent Dunes was building was a 1,600-acre plant in
the Nevada desert designed to use mirrors to capture sunlight to heat
molten salt in a giant tower to create energy. “The plant was supposed
to generate clean energy using more than 10,000 mirrors to heat molten
salt in a 640-foot-high tower,” the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote in a
2020 editorial about the project’s failures. “The superheated salt would
then boil water, creating steam to produce power. Making this endeavor
even more exciting was that salt was supposed to be able to store heat
and produce electricity after sunset.”

Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, had
talked for years about making the Silver State “the Saudi Arabia of
geothermal and solar energy.” This fit the bill. Reid, who has since
retired and passed away, now has the Las Vegas airport named after him.
While he is gone, the U.S. taxpayer is still allegedly out with what
sources familiar with the details of the lawsuit say is more than $200
million, and could be as high as $700 million or even more depending on
factors such as depreciation and loan guarantees.

The plant went into bankruptcy in 2020 after years of failing to return
any profit, but as of 2021, it was reportedly operating again somewhat
under a different ownership structure per a local news report from
8NewsNow in Nevada. That story detailed some of the problems with the
technology as well.

“In addition to its struggles to turn a profit, the plant also was
criticized because birds were dying in the intense heat produced by the
panels. Some reports indicated that birds had burst into flames in
mid-flight,” the 8NewsNow report from 2021 from a Las Vegas television
station reads. “Another problem surrounded a report that workers were
hospitalized after they were exposed to nitrogen dioxide — a gas emitted
from the hot salt tank.”

These and other major problems with the technology and operations at the
Crescent Dunes plant that significantly delayed its launch — and even
took the plant offline for a year — call into question the legitimacy of
cash grants, guaranteed loans, and depreciation benefits and whether
American taxpayers were essentially bilked out of the cash and are now
owed money.

That is what the qui tam lawsuit aimed to rectify, and that is where CMB
Export, LLC comes in. CMB’s interest is, as an EB-5 visa firm, they say
they are out tens of millions of dollars because of the failed project.
So, they began investigating what happened and uncovered these major
concerns with regard to how the Obama administration awarded these
grants and other taxpayer-funded benefits, which are the basis for the
qui tam lawsuit. The Biden Justice Department slow-walked it for years
but finally approved the case to move forward procedurally. Everything
was going smoothly until just before the election, a couple days out
from Trump’s triumph over Harris, when CMB began hearing that the Biden
Justice Department may reverse its support for the lawsuit.

Notice of that reversal is what formally came in those Election Night
emails from the DOJ official, followed by a filing the next day in court
seeking the dismissal of the qui tam case. The timing begs questions
regarding why the Biden Justice Department would — from all appearances
— seek to cover this up before Donald Trump would win the Presidential
Election and Republicans would control both houses in Congress.

There is growing interest in Congress about getting answers from the
DOJ.

Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) wrote on Monday to Attorney General Merrick
Garland to demand answers about the election night reversal.

“I am writing to express my concern regarding the Department of
Justice’s recent decision to intervene and dismiss the qui tam case
filed by CMB Export, LLC, under the False Claims Act against Tonopah
Solar Energy, LLC, Cobra Energy Investment, and other associated
parties,” Miller wrote to Garland in the letter, a copy of which was
obtained by Breitbart News. “This case, centered on allegations of
significant fraud and misrepresentation regarding the Crescent Dunes
Project, raises serious questions about the use of taxpayer funds and
the federal government’s commitment to holding parties accountable for
alleged misconduct. The timing of the Department’s decision to dismiss
this case is particularly troubling. After three and a half years of
investigation, during which the case was under seal, the Department
chose to allow CMB Export to proceed with prosecution as of August 2023.
However, on November 6, 2024—just one day after the presidential
election—the Department reversed course, intervening to dismiss the case
with no clear justification provided beyond vague references to ‘public
interest’ and the ‘expenditure of government resources.’”

Breitbart News reached out to Congressman Miller, who gave the following
exclusive comment:

On November 5th, the American people rejected the Biden administration’s
radical green new deal agenda and voted for affordable energy. If this
project isn’t fulfilling its commitment, the DOJ needs to fully
investigate. There must be accountability and transparency for every
taxpayer dollar spent by the government, and I look forward to hearing
from AG Garland.