Interior Department

Interior To Take Another Look At Griles-Abramoff Ties?

Zachary Roth | January 29, 2009, 6:19PM

We noted earlier today that the new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, yesterday said he wanted to re-open investigations into ethical lapses at the department under Bush. And he specifically mentioned, among other scandals, the Steven Griles affair, in which the department's number two official was convicted in connection to his ties to super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the highest-ranking administration official sentenced in the sprawling Abramoff probe.

So it's worth doing a quick refresher on what happened there.

In a nutshell, as we put it in 2007 before Griles was sentenced, he served for years as Abramoff's man at Interior. He provided the lobbyist with information that was useful to his tribal clients -- in return getting favors not for himself, but for his stable of girlfriends.

Abramoff gave $500,000 to a conservative group run by one of them, Italia Federici, a former aide to Interior Secretary Gail Norton. It was through Federici that Abramoff first gained access to Griles. Abramoff also interviewed two other Griles gal-pals for possible jobs. And Griles lied about all this to a Senate committee.

In 2007, Griles pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

Given the evidence against Griles and Federici, there was speculation that former Norton, who was cozy throughout her career with mining, logging and drilling interests, might also be of interest to investigators. (Abramoff once described Federici's group as "my access to Norton"). So if the Griles affair is indeed re-investigated, it'll certainly be worth watching where things lead.

We've put in a call to the department to get more specifics on what exactly Salazar might want to look at, and will let you know what we find out...

Interior Department

Interior Officials Could Still Face Prosecution For Ethical Misconduct

Zachary Roth | January 29, 2009, 1:08PM

The list of Bush administration officials who could now face prosecution for their misdeeds over the last eight years doesn't only include those who authorized harsh tactics in the War on Terror.

Yesterday, Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, said at a White House briefing that he planned to reopen probes into a web of ethical misconduct at the department's Minerals Management Service, which included employees accepting gifts from, and having sex with, representatives of the oil and gas companies they were supposed to be regulating.

Reports by the department's Inspector General recommended that two MMS managers implicated in the scandal be prosecuted. But the Bush Justice Department declined to bring charges, a decision that the IG, Earl Devaney, publicly criticized, telling a congressional committee last September: ''I would have liked a more aggressive approach, and I would have liked to have seen some other people prosecuted here.''

Devaney also complained during his testimony that his report had been incomplete because Chevron -- one of the companies charged with giving gifts to the staffers -- had hired lawyers for six employees implicated in the scandal who later refused to cooperate with the IG' investigation.

One of those who escaped prosecution was Greg Smith, who ran the Denver office of MMS's Royalty in Kind (RIK) program, in which the government forgoes royalties and takes a share of the oil and gas for resale instead. Smith was accused in the reports -- including one special report focused on him -- of coercing two subordinates into sex, doing cocaine with a subordinate, suggesting to other employees that they should lie to investigators, and taking $30,000 from a private company for marketing its services to oil and gas companies.

One employee told investigators that "Smith directed her to purchase cocaine for him during normal MMS business hours, and Smith used the term "office supplies" when discussing cocaine while at work."

Here's another good excerpt:

The RIK employee recalled that on one occasion in late 2004, Smith telephoned her repeatedly asking for drugs. She said she provided cocaine to him early that evening, but he continued to call her. Eventually, she said, Smith traveled to her house and wanted her to have sex with him. She said he also asked her if she had more cocaine, and she stated that she did not but that someone who was staying with her might. She said Smith obtained crystal methamphetamine from one of these individuals and she watched him snort it off the toaster oven in her kitchen. The RIK employee also said she and Smith engaged in oral sex that evening.

The other official who Devaney recommended prosecuting is accused of less tabloid friendly -- but equally serious -- misdeeds.

Lucy Dennet, a top official of the Minerals Revenue Management office in Washington DC, is accused of helping another MMS employee, Jimmy Mayberry, to create a lucrative MMS contract that benefited him after he left MMS. Mayberry and another former MMS employee, Milton Dial, have already pleaded guilty to creating the deal. Mayberry faces up to five years in prison.

One of the IG reports found:

In the matter involving Ms. Dennet, Mr. Mayberry and Milton Dial, the results of this investigation paint a disturbing picture of three Senior Executives who were good friends, and who remained calculatedly ignorant of the rules governing post-employment restrictions, conflicts of interest and Federal Acquisition Regulations to ensure that two lucrative MMS contracts would be awarded to the company created by Mr. Mayberry - Federal Business Solutions - and later joined by Mr. Dial. Ms. Dennet manipulated the contracting process from the start. She worked directly with the contracting officer, personally participated on the evaluation team for both contracts, asked for an increase to the first contract amount, and had Mayberry prepare the justification for the contract increase. Ms. Dennet also appears to have shared with Mr. Mayberry the Key Qualification criteria upon which bidders would be judged, two weeks before bid proposals on the first contract were due.

So it looks like Smith and Dennet may not be out of the woods yet.

Salazar also suggested that he'd re-open the investigation into the activities of Steven Griles, the former Deputy Interior Secretary who was convicted of obstructing justice in connection with the Jack Abramoff investigation. More on that to come...

Interior Department

Salazar Could Reopen Interior Probes

Zachary Roth | January 28, 2009, 3:16PM

Change may be coming to one of the departments of the federal government that was most damaged under the Bush administration.

Ken Salazar, the new Interior Secretary, said at a White House briefing this afternoon that he would undertake a top-to-bottom review of ethical misconduct at his agency, reports the Associated Press.

Salazar cited several of the department's lowest moments during the Bush years, and said that probes closed by the Bush administration could be reopened.

As we've noted at TPMmuckraker, Interior employees were found to have partied and had sex with employes from oil and gas companies they were supposed to be regulating. And Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles pleaded guilty to corruption in connection with the Jack Abramoff case.

Interior Department

Interior Official's Trail Of Ruin

Chris Black and Natalie Sherman | December 16, 2008, 4:22PM

Remember Julie MacDonald, President Bush's former assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks who resigned in 2007 amid stories of sharing files with energy industry insiders and drawing conservation boundaries around family property?

Well, she's back in the news.

A new report (pdf) released on Monday by the office of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) lambastes MacDonald for interfering in the execution of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to the report, issued by the Interior Department's Inspector General at the request of Sen. Wyden, MacDonald -- who was appointed by anti-environmental former Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- interfered in 13 of 20 investigated decisions regarding endangered species protection and "compromised the scientific credibility of the Fish and Wildlife Service."

Some of the juicier nuggets from the 141-page report's findings follow after the jump.

Read more »

Interior Department

Interior Disciplines Staffers For Partying With Oil Workers

Zachary Roth | November 21, 2008, 2:08PM

Looks like having sex with employees of oil companies you're supposed to be regulating -- not to mention doing drugs in the office -- isn't such a great career move after all.

An internal Interior Department report issued in September found that a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" had existed from 2002 to 2006 in the department Denver office. Staffers had been getting drunk and having sex with oil company personnel, as well as doing coke and smoking pot in the office.

And today, reports the Associated Press, Interior took disciplinary action against those involved -- ranging from a warning letter to termination. The department wouldn't provide further details on the punishments.

Workers in the office were also found to have accepted golf and ski trips, snowboarding lessons and concert tickets from oil companies.

Interior Department

Bushies Burrowing Into Career Posts At Interior, Other Departments

Zachary Roth | November 18, 2008, 11:51AM

The Bush administration's days may be numbered, but some loyal Bushies are taking steps to worm themselves or their subordinates into the federal bureaucracy, so that they can't be dislodged by the incoming Obama administration.

The Washington Post reports:

Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management, the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to become career civil servants.

In one example of what some Washington veterans call the "headless nail" phenomenon -- in which political appointees quietly move into career jobs ithin their departments, making it hard for the incoming administration to remove them -- David Bernhardt, the top lawyer for the Interior Department, has shifted six of his deputies into senior civil service positions. One of these, Robert Comer, was found by an internal DOI report to have struck an agreement on grazing with a Wyoming rancher "with total disregard for the concerns raised by career field personnel." Another, Matthew McKeown, has attracted criticism from environmentalists for promoting grazing and logging on public lands.

Bernhardt told the Post: "I believe these management decisions will strengthen the professionalism of the Office of the Solicitor and result in greater service to the Department of the Interior. However, the next solicitor and the department's management team are free to walk a different path."

But a career DOI official disagreed: "It is an attempt by the outgoing administration to limit as much as possible [the incoming administration's] ability to put its policy imprint on the Department of Interior."

Two Labor Department political appointees have also secured civil service jobs there.

This strategy is hardly unique to the Bush administration. In its final year of existence, the Clinton administration, says the Post, made 47 such moves, "including seven at the senior executive level."