ABUSE OF POWER?

Senior Trump Official Used Connections to Help Relative Get a Job at the EPA: Watchdog

Assistant Interior Secretary Douglas Domenech advocated for his son-in-law when he applied for a position at the agency, investigators said.

Douglas Domenech used his connections as assistant interior secretary to help his son-in-law get a job at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a watchdog investigation. The Interior Department’s inspector general discovered that Domenech discussed the job for his relative with a senior EPA official on two occasions, once in person and another time via email, in 2017. He also advocated for another relative’s wedding-related business to that official, investigators found.

This is the second time that Domenech, a Trump appointee and the father of Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech (and father-in-law of The View’s Meghan McCain), has been flagged for ethical violations over the last six months. In December, investigators said he violated federal ethics rules by communicating on two occasions with his former employer, a conservative policy group in Texas, about legal disputes between the organization and the department.