Government analyst resigns over blocked climate change testimony: reports

A State Department analyst has resigned after White House officials blocked his written testimony to a congressional panel citing evidence that climate change poses a national security threat, according to Wednesday reports.

The analyst, Rod Schoonover, resigned in protest and Friday will be his last day, according to State Department officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.

{mosads}Schoonover declined to comment to the paper. 

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment. A spokesperson said the State Department does not comment on personnel matters. 

In June, The Washington Post reported White House officials blocked portions of Schoonover’s prepared statement to a House Intelligence Committee that mentioned human-caused climate change could be “possibly catastrophic.” The cuts were reportedly due to comments not matching the Trump administration’s official stance. 

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is inviting Schoonover to return to the committee, “to shed light on alleged efforts to censor his written testimony,” according to a statement shared with the Journal. 

Schoonover has been with the department for almost ten years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In his 12-page prepared testimony, reviewed by The Washington Post, Schoonover detailed how rising greenhouse gas emissions raise global temperatures and acidify oceans. 

President Trump has publicly downplayed — and outright denied — the existence of climate change, at one point suggesting it was a hoax invented by the Chinese. In 2017, he pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris climate accord. 

Updated 7:56 p.m.