OFFICE OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT OF INVESTIGATION
https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/DOI/WebReactFormerSecretaryEthicalNoncompliance.pdf
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We investigated allegations that former Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Ryan Zinke continued to be involved in a land development project in his hometown of Whitefish, MT, after he was appointed as Secretary of the Interior and that his continued involvement posed a potential conflict of interest with his official duties.
The allegations centered around the Secretary’s ongoing involvement with the Great Northern Veterans Peace Park Foundation (GNVPP or Foundation) that Secretary Zinke and others had established in 2007 and from which Secretary Zinke represented that he had resigned upon appointment as Secretary of the Interior. According to the allegations, Secretary Zinke and his wife were in negotiations with private developers regarding the use of the Foundation’s land for a commercial development project known as 95 Karrow. One of the developers and primary investors in the 95 Karrow project was a senior executive of the Halliburton Company who allegedly stood to benefit from Secretary Zinke’s official actions. The allegations also stated that Secretary Zinke may have used Federal resources and his position as Secretary of the Interior for personal financial gain and that other DOI staff may have actively tried to conceal the Secretary’s involvement.
Secretary Zinke, his wife, and the 95 Karrow project developers, through their attorneys, declined our requests for an interview, but we issued Inspector General subpoenas to the developers for emails and text messages related to the project. The emails 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. Specifically, 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.
In light of these communications, we found that Secretary Zinke failed to abide by his ethics obligations in which he committed not to manage or provide any other services to the Foundation after his appointment as Secretary of the Interior. We also found that Secretary Zinke did not comply with his duty of candor when questioned by the DOI’s then Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO) about his continued involvement in Foundation matters, including the 95 Karrow project. In addition, we found that Secretary Zinke misused his official position in violation of Federal regulations by directing his subordinates to assist him with matters related to 1 the Foundation and the 95 Karrow project. We did not find, however, that Secretary Zinke’s staff tried to conceal the Secretary’s involvement in Foundation matters or the 95 Karrow project.
INSPECTOR GENERAL U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR REPORT OF INVESTIGATION
https://www.doioig.gov/sites/default/files/2021-migration/WebRedacted_FormerSecretaryandCOSDidntComplyWithDutyofCandor.pdf
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We investigated actions related to a U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) decision with respect to two Indian Tribes’ plans to jointly construct and operate a casino in Connecticut. During the investigation, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and the DOI Chief of Staff (COS) made statements to DOI Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigators regarding their involvement in that decision.1 Although we ultimately did not focus on the DOI’s underlying decision, in part due to litigation between the Tribes and the DOI that was ongoing during our investigation and has since been resolved, we found that Secretary Zinke and the COS made statements to OIG investigators with the overall intent to mislead them. We found that both Secretary Zinke and the COS made statements that presented an inaccurate version of the circumstances in which the DOI made key decisions. As a result, we concluded that Secretary Zinke and the COS did not comply with their duty of candor when questioned about their respective involvement in the DOI’s decision.2 Appendix 1 includes a timeline reflecting the events we discuss in this report.
We referred our findings to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2018. The DOJ declined prosecution in this matter in the summer of 2021.
We offered the subjects the opportunity to review portions of the draft report. Former Secretary Zinke, through counsel, accepted this offer and provided comments. We have included the full text of Secretary Zinke’s comments in Appendix 2, as well as our assessment of those comments in Appendix 3. We also made minor clarifying revisions to the draft report in light of Secretary Zinke’s comments but made no substantive changes in our analysis or conclusions. The former COS did not accept our offer to review portions of the draft report.