Comment Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the front-runner to win a new House seat representing Montana this fall, lied to investigators multiple times about conversations he had with federal officials, lawmakers and lobbyists about an application by two Indians tribes to operate a casino in New England. , the department warden said in a report released Wednesday. Investigators from Inspector General Mark Greenblatt’s office concluded that when questioned about his conversations with Interior lawyers and others outside the department, Zinke and his then-chief of staff failed to comply with their “duty of candor” as public officials to to tell the truth. the report said. “We found that both Secretary Zinke and Mr [chief of staff] made statements that presented an inaccurate version of the circumstances under which [the Interior Department] made key decisions,” the report said. “As a result, we have concluded that Secretary Zinke and the [chief of staff] failed to comply with their duty of candor when questioned.” Investigators found that Zinke and his chief of staff “made statements to OIG investigators with the general intent to mislead them.” A letter from Zinke’s attorney’s office included in the report pushed back on its substance, calling the report “distorted and misleading” and questioning the timing of its release. Zinke’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The watchdog began its investigation in 2017 to determine whether Zinke had been improperly influenced by Nevada Republicans and MGM Resorts International, which opposed the rival casino’s plans. The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes wanted to open a gaming facility in East Windsor, Conn., a request that required federal approval. Zinke neither accepted nor denied the report. Instead, he sent it back to the tribes. His action was done the subject of intense scrutiny at the Interior and the White House during the first months of President Donald Trump’s term. During the investigation, the inspector general’s office shifted its focus from the decision in the casino case to the truth of the statements made by Zinke and his chief of staff. According to the report, Zinke told investigators that he based his decision on the recommendation of lawyers in the Office of the Interior Counsel. But the report found that the evidence contradicted that claim. Interior attorneys have denied to investigators that they spoke to Zinke, gave him advice or approved his decision not to take a stand on the report. And people with whom Zinke declined to meet said they were in regular contact with him to pressure him to deny the tribes’ request, according to emails and other documents obtained by investigators. When told his account was contradicted by the evidence, Zinke doubled down, the report said. He claimed that while he may have met socially with then-Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on the casino project, did not recall any discussion. Investigators interviewed Zinke and his chief of staff twice in 2018 before Zinke announced his resignation as secretary late that year under a cloud of ethics investigations involving the casino affair. In a scathing rebuttal included in the report’s appendix, Zinke faulted the inspector general’s office for releasing its findings so close to the November midterm elections. He argued that it should be released after the election. Zinke is the Republican nominee for a new U.S. House seat representing western Montana, a race he is favored to win. “Given the unnecessary delay in completing the report, we find the timing of the release of this report troubling and inappropriate,” a lawyer for the former secretary wrote. Zinke’s lawyer also attacked the report on its merits, writing, “There was no basis for conducting such a review of Secretary Zinke, but it is clear that Secretary Zinke acted lawfully and ethically in the performance of his duties.” But the Trump administration’s own Justice Department, after receiving a criminal subpoena from the inspector general in late 2018 for possible criminal violations in the casino matter, took 2½ years to look into it. The delay effectively tied the inspector general’s hands in completing his administrative case, which the Biden administration reviewed for six months before formally dismissing the case. Wednesday’s report was issued a year later. In early 2019, Zinke’s successor, David Bernhard, approved the tribes’ application to build an off-reservation casino in Connecticut, ending a long legal battle. The inspector general’s report comes six months after the same office accused Zinke of also lying about his role in negotiating a land deal in his hometown of Whitefish, Mont. That investigation found that Zinke had breached his duty of candor when he told a federal ethics official that his involvement in the deal was minimal. He had claimed that his meeting with project developers at Home Office headquarters was “purely social”. But email and text message exchanges obtained by the warden told a different story. They showed Zinke had contacted the developers 64 times to discuss the project’s design, his foundation’s use of land as a parking lot and his interest in operating a brewery on the site. Investigators found that Zinke violated federal ethics rules repeatedly by continuing to represent his family’s foundation in negotiations for nearly a year. That violated an ethics agreement in which he pledged not to do any work on behalf of the foundation after joining the Trump administration. The report also found that Zinke had abused his official position by ordering some of his staff to arrange a meeting with the developers and print documents related to the project. Federal officials are generally prohibited from delegating to their employees duties related to their private business. Although Greenblatt, who oversaw the investigation, was appointed by Trump, Zinke criticized the investigation as a “political job” by the Biden administration. The Justice Department has declined to press charges in connection with that investigation. Sign up for the latest news on climate change, energy and the environment, delivered every Thursday
