Watchdog clears Ryan Zinke of wrongdoing in Utah monument inquiry
Source: Associated Press
Watchdog clears Ryan Zinke of wrongdoing in Utah monument inquiry
Associated Press
Tue 27 Nov 2018 02.53 GMT Last modified on Tue 27 Nov 2018 13.24 GMT
An internal watchdog has cleared the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, of wrongdoing following a complaint that he redrew the boundaries of a national monument in Utah to benefit a state lawmaker and political ally.
The interior department’s office of inspector general says it found no evidence that Zinke gave the veteran state representative Mike Noel preferential treatment in shrinking the boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument.
Noel, who publicly pushed for the monument to be redrawn, owns land near the monument site, including a 40-acre parcel that was surrounded by the monument but now is outside its boundaries.
The report says investigators found no evidence that Zinke or other department officials knew of Noel’s financial interest in the revised boundaries or gave him preferential treatment. Noel, an outspoken critic of federal land management, is retiring next month after 16 years in the legislature.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/26/watchdog-clears-ryan-zinke-of-wrongdoing-in-utah-monument-investigation
= new reply since forum marked as read
