Watchdog to investigate Interior Secretary Haaland’s wedding for possible improper gifts
- September 3, 2021
Protect the Public’s Trust is asking for transparency from the DOI regarding guest and gift lists from the wedding.
Natalia Mittelstadt, Just the News
Federal ethics watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) launched an investigation on Thursday into Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Aug. 30 wedding.
PPT’s concern is that Haaland may have potentially violated federal ethics laws or guidelines by accepting improper gifts from “prohibited sources.”
“The public deserves to know whether Secretary Haaland has improperly solicited or received gifts (through invitation or directly) from ‘prohibited sources’ or foreign governments and to what extent she may have used government resources to do it,” PPT said in a statement. “We hope Interior will change course from its recent practice of stonewalling requests for information and commit to meeting its statutory obligations.”
On Wednesday, PPT announced the DOI’s inspector general had opened an investigation based on a previous PPT complaint, this one against the Bureau of Land Management’s Deputy Director for Policy and Programs Nada Culver.
The complaint says that prior to Culver’s government appointment she worked for the National Audubon Society as the vice president of public lands and senior policy counsel and that her employer “petitioned BLM to halt progress” on Public Land Orders.