The Dept. of Justice is investigating Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke for “possibly using his office for personal gain,” CNN has just reported.
The Inspector General of the Dept. of the Interior had referred one of its three ongoing probes into Secretary Zinke to the Dept. of Justice.
“A referral to the Justice Department means that prosecutors will explore whether a criminal investigation is warranted,” The Washington Post reports. “While an agency’s inspector general regularly issues reports on the findings of its inquiries, it only refers cases to the Justice Department when it has determined that there could be potential criminal violations.”
It is not known which, if not all, of the three investigations were referred to Justice.
Secretary Zinke has been under investigation, like several Trump appointees, for his extravagant, and expensive, taxpayer-funded travel habits.
“One of the most serious allegations under investigation,” however, the Post adds, “regards the secretary’s role in a Montana land development deal backed by David J. Lesar, chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton. The business and retail park, known as 95 Karrow, is slated to include several businesses and would be near multiple parcels of land owned by Zinke and his wife.”
The Post notes that “Halliburton’s operations are directly affected by many of Interior’s policies, including rules on how oil and gas drilling must be conducted, and which public lands and federal waters are open to energy exploration and development.”
Recently, a political appointee of HUD Secretary Ben Carson – who has little actual experience in oversight but had signed off on his $31,000 dining table – was announced as the replacement for the acting inspector general at the Interior Dept. Until the news media exposed the move and it was canceled.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license