Ryan Zinke's Interior Department: Ethics Violations, Developer Deals, Land Monuments Gutted

Overview

Ryan Zinke ran the Department of the Interior as if its public lands were assets to be redistributed to industry donors. He spent less than two years in the job, resigned amid multiple federal investigations, and left behind a record that included the largest rollback of monument protections in American history.

Bears Ears

Bears Ears National Monument was established by President Obama in December 2016 at the request of a coalition of five Native American tribes — the Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe, and Zuni. The tribes had sought monument status for decades; the 1.35 million acres contain tens of thousands of archaeological sites sacred to their peoples.

Trump, acting on Zinke's recommendation, reduced the monument by 85%. The boundaries of the reduced monument excluded many of the archaeological and sacred sites the tribes had sought to protect. The areas excluded from protection were opened to mining and energy extraction.

Five tribal nations and multiple environmental groups immediately filed suit. The litigation over Bears Ears continued through the Biden and Trump administrations.

The Corruption

Zinke's ethical violations spanned routine (personal use of government aircraft) to structural (pursuing a real estate deal with a Halliburton-connected company while Halliburton had business before his department). The Connecticut gaming intervention — in which he denied a tribal gaming compact in a way that appeared to benefit a donor's competing interests — resulted in a DOJ referral.

He resigned before the investigations concluded. Trump praised his service.