Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated ethics obligations in his land dealings with a Halliburton executive, the Interior Department\u2019s internal watchdog said in a report released Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The report from the department’s inspector general<\/a> confirms a series of issues POLITICO brought to light in 2018 during Zinke’s tenure as former President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary. These issues include Zinke’s attempts to aid Halliburton\u2019s then-chair David Lesar and other developers<\/a> in creating a commercial development known as 95 Karrow on land adjacent to a vacant lot in Montana that Zinke controlled through a family-run nonprofit foundation, a deal that would have led to Zinke potentially running a microbrewery on the site.<\/p>\n The negotiations, which included emails and text messages from Zinke to developers between August 2017 and July 2018, also involved meetings with Lesar and other developers in Zinke\u2019s office at Interior\u2019s D.C. headquarters<\/a> even as the department was charged with overseeing Halliburton\u2019s activities on federal land.<\/p>\n The inspector general concluded Zinke made “inaccurate and incomplete statements” when discussing his involvement in foundation-related matters because he had “extensive and in-depth involvement with the 95 Karrow project developers” in the months after he resigned as president of the foundation and from its board. <\/p>\n But the investigation did not find evidence that Zinke violated formal conflicts of interest laws or that Interior granted Halliburton any specific favors. The inspector general referred its findings to the Justice Department, which last year declined to prosecute, and is now providing its report to the current secretary for “any action deemed appropriate,” according to the report. An Interior Department spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment. <\/p>\n Zinke is now running to represent Montana in Congress despite spending much of his time in California<\/a>. He\u2019s attracted competition in the Republican primary and has had to field questions<\/a> on other issues that arose during his time at Interior, including questions over how a small, unknown company in his home town of Whitefish, Mont., ended up with a $300 million contract<\/a> to help repair the electric grid in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Zinke has said he has no connection to the company.<\/p>\n Zinke, his wife \u2014 who was listed as the foundation’s president after Zinke’s resignation \u2014 and the 95 Karrow project developers declined the inspector general’s interview requests, but the inspector general subpoenaed the developer’s emails and text messages related to the project. <\/p>\n \u201cEmails and text messages the developers produced showed that Secretary Zinke continued to be involved in Foundation matters while he was Secretary of the Interior, even after resigning from the Foundation and committing in required documentation to relevant Federal officials that he would no longer manage or provide services to the Foundation,\u201d the report states. \u201cSpecifically, the communications showed that Secretary Zinke repeatedly communicated with the developers of the 95 Karrow project and negotiated with them on behalf of the Foundation by discussing the use of Foundation property for the project, specific design aspects of the project, and the development of a microbrewery on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n Zinke also had Interior employees do work for the foundation \u2014 the Great Northern Veterans Peace Park \u2014 and help with negotiations over the commercial development, the report stated. But the inspector general did find evidence to support allegations that his staff actively tried to conceal his involvement in foundation matters or the 95 Karrow project. <\/p>\n Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, resigned from Interior in December 2018<\/a> after running through a series of scandals that also involved him using government helicopters to attend political events \u2014 including horseback riding with then-Vice President Mike Pence<\/a> \u2014 and his funneling money to questionable PACs<\/a>. A spokesperson from Zinke’s campaign did not rebut the report’s findings but defended the Zinke family’s operation of the vacant lot. <\/p>\n “Only in Biden\u2019s corrupt administration is talking to one\u2019s neighbor about the town\u2019s public meetings and history of the land a sin,” the campaign spokesperson wrote in an email to POLITICO. <\/p>\n