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.

Steven Griles

Federici Avoids Halfway House For Role In Abramoff Scheme

Andrew Tilghman | August 5, 2008, 5:11PM

Of all the officials who pleaded guilty to crimes related to the corruption ring surrounding Jack Abramoff -- and there have been many -- Italia Federici has probably gotten off the lightest.

Federici, 38, served as a go-between for Abramoff and high-ranking officials in the Department of the Interior. She avoided jail time by agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors back in June 2007, when she pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation.

Now a federal judge has ruled she won't have to serve the 60 days in a halfway house that was supposed to be a part of her four years of probation -- for now at least. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle agreed yesterday to hold that part of her sentence "in abeyance" while Federici remains on probation until 2011.

Federici's cooperation last year was key to the conviction of Steven Griles, formerly the deputy secretary of the Interior Department (and also her ex-boyfriend). Griles was sentenced to 10 months in prison last year.

Jack Abramoff

Griles' Ex-Gal Pal Gets No Jail Time

Paul Kiel | December 14, 2007, 1:03PM

If there's one thing that the Abramoff scandal has taught us, it's that it pays to snitch.

From the AP:

An environmental advocate who provided Jack Abramoff's entree into the Interior Department was sentenced Friday to two months in a halfway house and four years probation.

Italia Federici, who pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation, was spared prison only because she has become a key witness in the Justice Department's ongoing corruption investigation.

(I would be remiss if I didn't amusedly note the AP's description of Federici as an "environmental advocate." She did indeed head a group called Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), so the word "environmental" was in her group's title. But her advocacy was definitely against the environmental movement, not with it.)

Federici was key in helping the feds bag Steven Griles, formerly the deputy secretary of the Interior Department (and formerly her boyfriend). Griles was sentenced to 10 months in prison back in June. And for that, she's been rewarded.

The scheme went this way: Jack Abramoff's tribal clients gave CREA at least $500,000 in contributions, providing practically the entire operating budget for the group. In return, Federici used her close connections to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (for whom she used to work) and the #2 Steven Griles (whom she was dating) to make sure that Abramoff's concerns were addressed. Here's the whole rundown.

Steven Griles

Judge Sentences Admin Official to 10 Months

Paul Kiel | June 26, 2007, 4:54PM

Prosecutors had asked for only five months imprisonment, coupled with five months house arrest for Steven Griles, the former #2 at the Interior Department who's pled guilty to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff.

A federal judge, apparently unconvinced that Griles had learned anything from the whole affair, today sentenced him to twice that. From the AP:

The Interior Department's former No. 2 official was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the highest administration official sentenced in the probe....

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," [Judge Ellen] Huvelle told Griles.

Griles had asked for three months home confinement and community service in the form of pro bono lobbying.

Steven Griles

Griles' Lawyer: He's No Libby

Paul Kiel | June 20, 2007, 2:53PM

Prosecutors want to send the former #2 at the Department of Interior J. Steven Griles to jail for five months, arguing that Griles' lies to Senate investigators threw investigators off the scent of his ties to Jack Abramoff and he ought to be punished for it.

But Griles' lawyer Barry Hartman responded yesterday, saying that while Griles admittedly lied (he pled guilty after all) about the extent of his ties to Abramoff, those lies didn't constitute a cover-up. If investigators had "actually asked a question about a particular subject," Hartman writes, Griles would have fessed up. Too bad investigators didn't know the right questions to ask.

Hartman also disputed prosecutors' comparison of Griles to Scooter Libby and David Safavian -- two former administration officials convicted for lying to investigators who got harsh sentences (2 1/2 years for Libby, 1 1/2 for Safavian):

"Mr. Libby was convicted after trial of multiple counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury in a grand jury investigation related to a very serious issue of national security and covert operations in foreign countries. Mr. Griles' concealment of a personal relationship and how it led to his meeting and knowing Mr. Abramoff is hardly comparable.

Mr. Safavian's conduct was also far more egregious than Mr. Griles'...."

In other words, Griles' committed at most the third most egregious felony by an administration official.

Griles' lawyer has asked that Griles be sentenced to community service, well, that he be sentenced to do what he does best, and that is lobby -- though on behalf of supposedly noble causes.

His sentencing is set for Tuesday.

Jack Abramoff

Prosecutors Detail Favor Trail between Abramoff, DoI Official

Paul Kiel | June 16, 2007, 11:35AM

Yesterday, prosecutors made their case against Steven Griles, the former #2 at the Department of Interior who pled guilty in March to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff. Prosecutors want a ten month sentence for Griles, split between prison and home detention.

Their sentencing memo extensively detailed how Griles was Abramoff's man in Interior, providing a constant stream of confidential information valuable to Abramoff's tribal clients. In return, Abramoff helped Griles' many lady friends: channelling $500,000 into Italia Federici's right-wing group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, and interviewing two others for possible jobs with Abramoff's lobbying firm (Griles, as we've noted before, is quite the lady's man). Abramoff also came close to hiring Griles himself. You can read The Washington Post's rundown of the sentencing memo here.

But my favorite part from the memo was this:

On September 24, 2003, Touchstone Pictures/Declaration Productions, Inc. was filming the 2004 motion picture "National Treasure" on the grounds of the United States Navy Memorial located in Washington, D.C. The Navy Memorial, built on Federal land and under the jurisdiction of the DOT National Park Service, was steps away from the entrance to Signatures. Abramoff was upset that the film crew and its trailers and equipment were blocking the valet parking area abutting his restaurant. Because the film crew had a valid permit, they ignored Abramoff's demands to move away from his restaurant.

Knowing that the Navy Memorial was built on Federal land, Abramoff telephoned defendant Griles. The defendant, in turn, contacted the Special Assistant to the Director of the National Park Service and asked the Government official to investigate Abramoff' s complaint. The National Park Service official went to the restaurant, spoke with both the manager of Signatures and a representative of the film crew, and directed the film crew to move their equipment away from the restaurant's valet parking area.

So who wins in a power showdown between Abramoff and Nick Cage (who starred in National Treasure)? In D.C., Abramoff would have won that battle every time.

Jack Abramoff

Public Corruption and Matters of the Heart

Paul Kiel | March 23, 2007, 12:21PM

Boy, where Steven Griles' heart leads, trouble follows.

Here's a copy of the criminal information filed by prosecutors this morning; it lays out the facts to which Griles pled guilty this morning.

The filing reveals that Griles was romantically involved with Italia Federici (identified as Person A) from 1998 through 2003, and that it was that relationship which led to Jack Abramoff's access to Griles while he was deputy secretary of the Interior. It also says that Griles lied to the committee to cover all that up.

Here's how it worked. Federici runs a nonprofit called Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), a conservative think tank. Since Federici was a former aide to then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and was well connected in the Interior Department, Abramoff found her very useful. His clients pumped $500,00 into her organization; in return, she ensured that people inside the department knew about his clients' concerns. The person inside who was particularly helpful was Griles, the #2 there.

But Griles didn't want the Senate to know any of this. So he lied.

Read more »

Jack Abramoff

Former Admin Official to Plead Guilty in Abramoff Case

Paul Kiel | March 23, 2007, 8:58AM

From the AP:

Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation, The Associated Press has learned.

Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of President Bush's energy policies while at the Interior Department between July 2001 and July 2005, is the highest ranking Bush administration official implicated in the Washington lobbying scandal.

The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department has agreed to a felony plea admitting that he lied five times to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case told the AP....

And it sounds like a very good deal for Griles:

Prosecutors dropped earlier allegations that Griles did anything improper to help Abramoff or gained anything of value from the former Republican lobbyist, the AP was told. The agreement does not require Griles to help investigators with their grand jury probe....

In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors will seek no more than a 10-month prison sentence for Griles — the minimum they could seek under sentencing guidelines — but they will agree to let him serve half that in home confinement, according to one person involved in the case.

More later. In the meantime, here's a post I wrote just after the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs released their report on Abramoff. It was immediately apparent that Griles had lied to investigators.

Steven Griles

Sex, Lies, and Energy Interests

Paul Kiel | February 22, 2007, 2:40PM

The scandal over the government's top environmental prosecutor's purchase of a vacation home with an oil lobbyist isn't dying down, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) calling yesterday for tighter federal ethics rules.

But the story goes far beyond that one glaring conflict of interest. It's merely one troubling aspect of a romantic relationship between the Sue Ellen Wooldridge, who headed up the Justice Department's environmental division, and Steven Griles, the former energy lobbyist and Deputy Secretary of the Interior who's well on his way to being indicted as part of the Jack Abramoff investigation.

It's not your typical love story.

Griles came to the Interior Department in 2001, leaving a practice lobbying for coal, oil, and other corporate interests to help oversee the country's resources. Unsurprisingly, ethics officials were on his case almost immediately for allegedly lobbying on the inside for his former clients. On one occasion, for example, he called over to the Environmental Protection Agency to urge that an environmental study not delay a huge coal-bed methane project planned by his former clients in Wyoming and Nevada.

So to ensure that Griles not roam too freely, an Interior official was assigned to keep an eye on him. That official: Sue Ellen Wooldridge, then the deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

After a couple of months, the two were dating.

But they didn't tell that to anyone at the Interior Department, especially not the Inspector General, who was investigating Griles for ethics violations.

The relationship began in February, 2003, according to The Washington Post. And during that year, they gave each other "thousands of dollars in gifts and trips" -- only they didn't report them on their disclosure statements (required of federal appointees) until they filed amendments late last year as investigators were bearing down on them.

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