YIKES

Interior Department Watchdog Probes Six Trump Appointees Over Potential Ethics Violations

The employees allegedly engaged with their former employers and clients while at the Interior Department.

The Interior Department’s inspector general is probing six Trump appointees over potential federal ethics violations, The Washington Post reports. The six employees—including Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Doug Domenech and White House liaison Lori Mashburn—allegedly engaged with their former employers or clients on “department-related business” while working at the Interior Department. More specifically, Domenech is accused of meeting with his former employer—the Texas Public Policy Foundation—twice as the group had two pending lawsuits with the department. Mashburn allegedly attended private events hosted by the Heritage Foundation, her former employer.

A spokeswoman from the inspector general’s office told the Post it opened a probe and is “considering all the material” presented in a complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center. This comes after the IG’s office also launched an investigation into whether Interior Secretary David Bernhardt violated federal conflict of interest rules by deciding on matters that could affect his former law firm clients.

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Victoria Albert