Another government official has been busted, seemingly using their post in the Trump administration for personal gain.
Documents obtained by the New York Times found that the third-highest-ranking official in the Interior Department failed to disclose her family’s financial interest in a controversial government-approved lithium mine.
Frank Falen, who owns Home Ranch in northern Nevada, sold water to Lithium Nevada Corporation, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas, for $3.5 million in 2018. The mining company was planning a new lithium mine near the ranch called Thacker Pass. Falen is the husband of Karen Budd-Falen, who currently serves as Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
At the time of the sale, Budd-Falen was deputy solicitor of the agency, which manages the country’s natural resources and land. Falen’s water contract was dependent on Thacker Pass securing a permit from the Interior Department, according to the New York Times. Budd-Falen met Lithium Americas executives for lunch in November 2019, although a company representative told the outlet that they had not discussed the mine.
Still, senior federal officials are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest in public financial disclosure reports in accordance with federal ethics laws. Although ethics waivers can be granted in certain circumstances, it’s unclear if Budd-Falen received one.
The Interior Department did not directly respond to questions about whether Budd-Falen had a waiver or if she had worked on the mine permit. Press secretary Aubrie Spadey said in an email that Budd-Fallen’s “long record of professionalism and excellence in her work speaks louder than any baseless accusation.”
Budd-Falen is not the first Trump official to have allegedly profited during their tenure in public service. An August report from The New Yorker revealed that the president and his family are poised to profit nearly $3.4 billion by the end of his second term. A November report from ProPublica revealed that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s associate, Benjamin Yoho, won a $220 million contract from DHS. Yoho, 38, is married to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, 31.
Budd-Falen listed Home Ranch as an asset in financial disclosure reports filed between 2018 and 2021. However, she did not list her husband’s contract with Lithium Americas.
Falen told the New York Times that his wife had little knowledge of the contract between Home Ranch and Lithium Americas. He claimed that she recused herself from any work related to the Bureau of Land Management, which issues permits. Falen did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
“Karen knew so little about what was going on,” he told the New York Times. “She was not a decision maker on any BLM stuff, and she never had anything to do, even to be aware it was going on, with Nevada Lithium.”
Thacker Pass was approved for a permit right before the end of the first Trump Administration in early 2021. It had been granted a fast-tracked review that took under a year. Construction began in 2023. The government announced in October that it owned a 5% stake in Lithium Americas.
The project has been criticized by environmental and Indigenous activists who say that it threatens endangered species and infringes on Indigenous people’s rights. Last year, a report from the ACLU and Human Rights Watch called on the government to halt construction of the mine to ensure that it received free, prior, and informed consent from affected native tribes.
