{"id":1438747,"date":"2022-04-14T17:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T21:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1438747"},"modified":"2022-04-14T17:29:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T21:29:46","slug":"complaint-interior-department-wont-release-documents-on-potential-ethics-violations-at-secretary-haalands-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/complaint-interior-department-wont-release-documents-on-potential-ethics-violations-at-secretary-haalands-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint: Interior Department Won\u2019t Release Documents On Potential Ethics Violations At Secretary Haaland\u2019s Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcomplaint-interior-department-wont-release-documents-on-potential-ethics-violations-at-secretary-haalands-wedding%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1438747&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/51089970776_bc7873cc9a_k-e1649969275962.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Interior Department is faced with a new lawsuit over its refusal to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) probing potential government ethics violations surrounding Secretary Deb Haaland\u2019s August wedding. <\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, filed Thursday by the government-transparency group Protect the Public\u2019s Trust (PPT), seeks to compel records requested by FOIA days after the event to examine whether improper gifts or influence peddling took place over the ceremony. According to the complaint, the Department of the Interior dismissed the group\u2019s inquiries four times when following up on the request now submitted more than 220 days ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsidering the potential for those who might be inclined to use Secretary Haaland\u2019s wedding for improper purposes, the Department should have been on heightened alert to any situation that may have presented possible ethics quandaries,\u201d said Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public\u2019s Trust. \u201cTheir responses to these FOIA requests hardly demonstrate any such commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haaland\u2019s New Mexico wedding became the target of controversy last summer when <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/30\/elizabeth-warren-parties-maskless-with-deb-haaland-and-real-american-indians\/\">images surfaced<\/a> from the celebration with prominent politicians such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren forgoing mask rules imposed by the state\u2019s Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe re-implemented mask requirement applies to all individuals aged 2 and older in all indoor public settings \u2014 except when eating or drinking,\u201d Grisham\u2019s office outlined in an Aug. 17\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.state.nm.us\/2021\/08\/17\/new-mexico-to-re-implement-indoor-mask-mandate-vaccinations-required-in-hospitals-congregate-settings\/\">press release<\/a>\u00a0with the expiration date set for Sept. 15. Haaland\u2019s wedding took place on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint filed by Protect the Public\u2019s Trust centers on the circumstances of the event and whether the secretary received gifts worth more than what is permissible pursuant to federal guidelines. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we congratulate Secretary Haaland and wish her a long and happy marriage,\u201d reads the PPT lawsuit, \u201cas a cabinet official, participation in a large event that customarily includes gifts and may have involved the use of official resources is more than a purely private affair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/ethics\/gifts\">According<\/a> to the Interior Department\u2019s Departmental Ethics Office (DOE), federal employees may only accept unsolicited gifts of more than $20 per person per occasion with some exceptions for items \u201cclearly\u201d based on personal relationships. <\/p>\n<p>The Department of the Interior has not released a guest list as requested by FOIA, with no indication a disclosure is in the pipeline, according to Protect the Public\u2019s Trust. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven these facts,\u201d plaintiffs wrote, \u201cit appears that absent litigation the Department has not and does not intend to meet its statutory obligations to provide the requested records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of the Interior did not respond to The Federalist\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Interior Department is faced with a new lawsuit over its refusal to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) probing potential government ethics violations surrounding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1438747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}