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The emails obtained from government officials late Friday showed that although Spinner avoided weighing in on the merits of granting a loan guarantee to Solyndra, he actively monitored the status of Solyndra's application.He expressed frustration with the pace of the approval process and fielded questions from administration officials about whether the investor community was wary of Solyndra.On June 15, 2009, he wrote to his boss, Matt Rogers, a senior advisor at the Energy Department who oversees stimulus spending: "here's the Solyndra checklist of all of the 60-70 items that need to be done for closing."A flurry of emails from early August to early September 2009 portrayed Spinner as impatient to show that the stimulus act was producing jobs, especially at so-called clean technology firms such as Solyndra.He was deeply involved in coordinating a "big event" to announce the approval of Solyndra's loan guarantee, which he envisioned involving "golden shovels, bulldozers, hardhats, etc," according to an Aug. 20, 2009, email.In addition, the emails showed that he was in close contact with Solyndra executives to plan the event.In late August 2009, Rogers wrote to Spinner in another email exchange: "Thanks for driving Solyndra."Federal records show that Allison Spinner's firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, received $2.4 million in federal funds for legal fees related to the Solyndra loan guarantee.Another Spinner email pointed out that his wife's law firm structured her pay so that she didn't earn anything from any work her company did on Solyndra.The federal agency noted that the firm has said that Allison Spinner "had no role in any firm business involving Solyndra or any other client matters involving the Energy Department while Spinner was in office."The Energy Department said that career ethics officers made sure that Steven Spinner did not overstep the constraints of his recusal from Solyndra.Administration officials also noted that recusal from analyzing the merits of the Solyndra loan guarantee did not bar Spinner from working to publicize it or monitoring the decision-making process.
