{"id":1621208,"date":"2022-08-25T18:05:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T22:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1621208"},"modified":"2022-08-25T18:09:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T22:09:38","slug":"new-watchdog-report-claiming-ex-trump-official-lied-four-years-ago-called-election-smear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-watchdog-report-claiming-ex-trump-official-lied-four-years-ago-called-election-smear\/","title":{"rendered":"New Watchdog Report Claiming Ex-Trump Official Lied Four Years Ago Called Election \u2018Smear\u2019"},"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\">26<\/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%2Fnew-watchdog-report-claiming-ex-trump-official-lied-four-years-ago-called-election-smear%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=1621208&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--><p>A federal watchdog\u2019s report accusing a former Trump cabinet official of lying to investigators is raising eyebrows due to its timing: four years after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/former-trump-admin-official-wins-gop-nomination-for-open-montana-congressional-seat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ryan Zinke\u2019s<\/a> alleged transgression and just over two months before he appears on the ballot for the House seat he previously held.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oversight.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/oig-reports\/DOI\/WebRedactedFormerSecretaryandCOSDidntComplyWithDutyofCandor.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">44-page report<\/a> by the Department of the Interior (DOI) Inspector General (IG) Mark Greenblatt found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/former-trump-admin-official-wins-gop-nomination-for-open-montana-congressional-seat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zinke<\/a>, the agency\u2019s former secretary, and his chief of staff \u201clacked candor\u201d with investigators probing Zinke\u2019s September 2017 decision involving an Indian casino. Zinke\u2019s attorney, Danny Onorato, called the report and its timing a \u201cpolitical smear,\u201d coming some two months before Zinke \u2014 a former Montana congressman \u2014 will be on the ballot bidding to take back that role in November.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecretary Zinke repeatedly told the inspector general that he was not subject to any influence in that matter because he lacked jurisdiction to act on the application,\u201d Onorato said in a statement. \u201cThat should have ended the inquiry. Instead, on the eve of an election, the IG has released a misleading and inaccurate report that suggested Secretary Zinke lacked candor in his interview with IG agents. That is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision by Zinke, a former Navy SEAL who served as secretary from 2017-2019, involved an application by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to open an off-reservation casino in Connecticut. The DOI manages Indian reservations, and typically approves, rejects, or takes no action on such proposals, with the latter option usually signaling tacit approval. Zinke\u2019s position was that because the proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/casinos-airlines-lobbying-congress-for-billions-in-coronavirus-bailout-funds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">casino<\/a> was not on federal land, it required a \u201cfourth option,\u201d in which the state would decide.<\/p>\n<p>Some Department attorneys opposed the decision, allegedly out of fear it could lead to a lawsuit. But a federal judge\u2019s ruling later vindicated Zinke\u2019s view. Nonetheless, by May 2018, the IG interviewed Zinke in an investigation involving the decision and referred the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for possible prosecution in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the allegedly false statements involved Zinke claiming that career DOI attorneys supported his decision, a claim the watchdog said was undermined by a Department lawyer\u2019s account that he was not \u201cthrilled\u201d but did believe Zinke\u2019s decision was legal.<\/p>\n<p>Zinke is also accused of downplaying interactions with lobbyists with a stake in the issue, including one political consultant with ties to Zinke who went skiing with him and had dinner at his home.<\/p>\n<p>But the report obscures the fact that Zinke did not do what lobbyists wanted him to. In one text message between two lobbyists, one complained that Zinke\u2019s decision was \u201cnot what we want. He thinks we can litigate against State. He thinks it\u2019s a half loaf. That\u2019s from Zinke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heather Swift, Zinke\u2019s campaign manager, told The Daily Wire that Zinke \u201ccame to the decision before any lobbyists contacted him or his chief, and his decision never changed, so that would mean none of them influenced his decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, President Joe Biden\u2019s DOJ declined to take action. The IG says it waited for a response from the DOJ, then conducted more than a year of further \u201cadministrative\u201d investigation into Zinke \u2014 who had resigned in 2019 \u2014 which is why the report was released now.<\/p>\n<p>Greenblatt\u2019s office did not respond to questions from The Daily Wire about the predicate of the investigation or why it continued its investigation long after Zinke was gone and the DOJ had declined to prosecute.<\/p>\n<p>In June, Zinke, who represented Montana in the House from 2015-2017, won the Republican primary for the state\u2019s newly created western district. He faces Democrat Monica Tranel in the November election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal inspector general issued an unusual report faulting a former Cabinet secretary of Donald Trump, years after he left office and weeks before he will be on the ballot for a Congressional race, in what the Republican official called a \u201csmear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1621210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1621208","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\/1621208","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1621208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1621210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}