Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
Late yesterday, one of the many investigations into Ryan Zinke by the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General resulted in a report faulting Zinke and his wife for violating policies and abusing the taxpayer’s dime to fund their lavish lifestyle. Zinke was found to have sought to designate his wife as an agency “volunteer” to avoid paying for her travel, wasted $25,000 of taxpayer funds for security on a vacation, and failed to seek ethics officials’ approval when taking campaign donors on a boat outing.
This damning report follows past findings critical of Zinke’s penchant for taxpayer-funded private travel and comes as Interior is trying to discredit another Cabinet member and denying multiple reports that a Trump political appointee will soon leave the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and take over as the head inspector general (IG) overseeing investigations into the Secretary.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders should answer questions about what appears to be a cover-up for Ryan Zinke:
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Ryan Zinke has now been found to have deliberately wasted tens of thousands of American taxpayer dollars while refusing to comply with policies - all so he could personally benefit. When will Donald Trump take action and fire Zinke, as he has with previous Cabinet officials like Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, and others who similarly abused their office?
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The Inspector General found that Zinke wasted tens of thousands of taxpayer money. Will Trump demand Ryan Zinke reimburse the American taxpayers?
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Ryan Zinke’s team has frantically sought to deny what appears to be a move to cover up Zinke’s scandals at Interior. Does Donald Trump find it appropriate to assign a political appointee to helm the investigations into yet another corrupt cabinet member?
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