Padilla, Schiff, Carbajal Press Former White House Adviser Over Advancing Corrupt Sable Oil Interests Before Joining Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), along with U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), pressed for answers from former White House energy adviser Brittany Kelm who, after spending months advancing the interests of Sable Offshore Corporation's unlawful California project in her capacity at the White House, accepted a job as Vice President of Policy and Commercial Programs at Sable.

"To understand whether your transition directly from the White House and Department of Interior to Sable - including your work on Administration policies before you left office and at Sable on matters related to your role on the NEDC after your separation - complies with the federal ethics laws, we seek detailed information regarding your interactions with the company during your government service, as well as documents and communications about your recent hiring by and employment with the company," wrote the lawmakers.

While at the White House, Kelm publicly championed and supported efforts to advance the restart of Sable's pipeline in California, a project that has not been permitted under California law, has incurred fines, and has had court orders issued against it. Sable CEO Jim Flores thanked Kelm for her work helping to restart the company's oil production, which the lawmakers argue is a violation of state law.

"These public statements leave the distinct impression that you were closely working on the Sable deal at a time when you could leverage the work you did advancing Sable's business interests to secure private employment or other financial benefits from the very company you supported as a government official. To move from a high-level government office to its direct beneficiary, especially for the purpose of personal gain, is both ethically improper and potentially unlawful," continued the lawmakers.

"Federal law prohibits any government employees from participating in any particular government matter, including permitting decisions, contracts, and other matters involving the interests of named parties, in which a company with whom they are seeking or negotiating for future employment has a financial interest," the lawmakers concluded.

The lawmakers demanded Kelm preserve all records of communications between her and Sable and questioned whether she received any ethics or conflicts of interest guidance.

Padilla has fought against Sable's repeated attempts at offshore oil and gas leases along the California coast. Last month, he led House and Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief challenging the Trump Administration's efforts to restart the Sable oil pipeline off the Santa Barbara coast. In June, Padilla and Senator Schiff introduced the Offshore Leasing Standards and Accountability Act, legislation to establish strict standards for offshore oil and gas operators and set requirements to hold them responsible for decommissioning and cleanup efforts off the coast. In April, Padilla pressed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, highlighting that the Trump Administration's plans to drill off of California's coast coupled with proposed cuts to funding for environmental programs and enforcement will endanger the coastline, the people who live there, and coastal economies.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Ms. Kelm,

We write to you in your personal capacity to seek information related to your recent move from the White House's National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) to the oil industry as Vice President of Policy and Commercial Programs at Sable Offshore Corporation (Sable), where you will reportedly oversee their Washington, D.C., policy office. Your new role, considering your prior close relationship with Sable while serving as a White House Senior Policy Adviser for Oil and Gas, raises serious questions about your compliance with federal ethics laws, compounding the many existing legal issues with the federal government's unilateral grant of approval of pipeline rights to Sable. To understand whether your transition directly from the White House and Department of Interior to Sable - including your work on Administration policies before you left office and at Sable on matters related to your role on the NEDC after your separation - complies with the federal ethics laws, we seek detailed information regarding your interactions with the company during your government service, as well as documents and communications about your recent hiring by and employment with the company.

During your tenure at NEDC, you and others made several statements suggesting that you were instrumental to the White House's efforts to advance Sable's pipeline in California by utilizing the Defense Production Act to override California's objections to the pipeline. For instance, at a June 2026 press conference, Sable Chief Executive Officer Jim Flores reportedly thanked you personally for helping restart the company's oil production, and you thanked Sable for "trusting the Trump Administration." According to your own LinkedIn posts, you also visited Sable's operations on at least two occasions and, while still in your role as a government official, you even appeared in photographs wearing Sable-branded merchandise. After Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed a secretarial order directing Sable to open its Santa Ynez Unit pipeline, you posted online "[w]e are bringing more US production online ASAP us️let's go Sable Offshore Corp." When announcing your departure from the White House, only days before beginning work at Sable, you referred to yourself as a "deal closer," while a White House colleague praised you for "never [giving] up on Sable Offshore Corp." These public statements leave the distinct impression that you were closely working on the Sable deal at a time when you could leverage the work you did advancing Sable's business interests to secure private employment or other financial benefits from the very company you supported as a government official. To move from a high-level government office to its direct beneficiary, especially for the purpose of personal gain, is both ethically improper and potentially unlawful.

As you must know, federal ethics laws and regulations restrict certain conduct by current and former executive branch employees. In particular, federal law prohibits any government employees from participating in any particular government matter, including permitting decisions, contracts, and other matters involving the interests of named parties, in which a company with whom they are seeking or negotiating for future employment has a financial interest. After an employee leaves government, they are permanently restricted from communicating to or appearing before the federal government on behalf of any other person concerning any particular matters involving specific parties in which a former employee participated "personally and substantially" while serving in government. Additionally, ethics laws impose a two-year restriction on representing private entities regarding specific matters that were pending under an employee's "official responsibility" during their final year of federal service, as well as establish "cooling off" periods that prohibit senior officials from contacting high-ranking White House personnel to influence official actions, regardless of whether they worked on those matters previously.

Against this legal backdrop, your public involvement in matters affecting Sable and rapid transition from the White House to Sable raise serious questions regarding your compliance with federal ethics requirements governing impartiality, employment negotiations, recusals, and post-government employment. Sable's conduct in recruiting and hiring you also may bear on the legality of their efforts to secure federal government approval of a dangerous oil pipeline project whose operation has run afoul of state laws and court orders.

We therefore request that you preserve all records and communications relating to Sable or any of their officers, employees, or agents, from March 1, 2025, to the present and continue preserving such materials on an ongoing basis. This preservation hold applies to all relevant records within your possession related to all communications with Sable, any person representing or purporting to be acting on behalf of Sable, or any consulting firms associated with Sable. This includes, but is not limited to, records and communications via email, whether official or personal; mobile devices; encrypted or disappearing messaging applications; social media; calendar entries; meeting notes; and voicemail and text messages. To the extent that you use any autodelete functions, you should immediately suspend auto-delete functions and notify persons with control over potentially relevant records of similar preservation obligations.

Given your reported involvement with Sable during your tenure at NDEC, please provide written responses to the following questions, including requested documents and communications, by October 21, 2026:

1. What role did you play in efforts to restart Sable's project during your time in government, and what actions did you take to assist Sable? Please provide detail about your role, titles, and a complete timeline of communications between yourself, Sable, or any person affiliated with Sable.
2. What matters relating to Sable fell within your responsibility as NEDC's Senior Policy Adviser for Oil and Gas?
3. Did anyone at the White House, NEDC, or any federal agency discuss with you your obligations under applicable ethics laws, regulations, and policies at any point in your tenure? If so, identify each person involved and please describe what was communicated and when did those communications begin?
4. When did you first communicate with Sable or its representatives regarding potential employment? Please detail those communications and provide all related records.
5. Did you file a financial disclosure report, including a public report (OGE 278e) or confidential disclosure report (OGE 450)? If so, please provide the last copy of the report that you filed with any agency of the United States including the Executive Office of the President or the Department of the Interior.
6. Pursuant to Section 17 of the STOCK Act regarding negotiations for post-government, non-federal employment, did you file notice with any federal entity concerning your employment negotiations or agreement with Sable? If so, please provide a copy.
7. Did you disclose to the Department of Interior, Office of Government Ethics, the Executive Office of the President, or any other federal entity your employment agreement or arrangement with Sable, including the date on which it was reached? If so, please provide a copy, including the date of the disclosures, and any advice you received.
8. Did you receive ethics guidance concerning Sable, including any guidance concerning seeking or negotiating for future employment, any guidance concerning social media or endorsement of companies, or any post-employment guidance? If so, please provide a copy of any written guidance, a full summary of any oral or verbal guidance, and identify all persons with knowledge of the exchange.
9. Did you recuse yourself from any matters involving Sable during your time at NEDC? If so, please describe the matters, when you recused, and provide all records related to your recusal including any recusal statement or ethics advice.
10. While seeking employment with Sable, did you seek or obtain a waiver or other authorization under 18 U.S.C. § 208 or 5 CFR § 2635.605?
11. What steps are you taking to comply with the post-employment restrictions proscribed in 18 U.S.C. § 207?
12. To your knowledge, did the White House, NEDC, Department of the Interior, Office of Government Ethics or any other federal entity provide you or Sable with guidance identifying the matters on which you are prohibited from working after government service? If so, please provide a copy of any written guidance, a full summary of any oral or verbal guidance, and identify all persons with knowledge of the exchange.
13. Have you sought or received any additional ethics or conflict of interest guidance since departing federal service? If so, please provide a copy of any written guidance, a full summary of any oral or verbal guidance, and identify all persons with knowledge of the exchange.
14. The White House stated that you do not plan to work on any "ongoing official matters" between Sable and the administration in your new role at Sable. Yet, your new job title according to LinkedIn is Vice President - Policy & Commercial. What will you be working on in your new role at Sable, if not federal policy matters? Have you communicated in any way with the federal government in this new role or have you advised others on communications with the federal government?

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. As Members of Congress, we take seriously our constitutional duty to investigate and root out potential waste, fraud, and abuse across the executive branch. Your thorough and prompt responses to these inquiries are critical to these efforts, as they may inform our work on legislative solutions to strengthen federal government ethics standards, enhance transparency, and reform applicable conflict-of-interest statutes. We look forward to your response, including a written confirmation that you are preserving all records related to this congressional inquiry.

###