Ryan Zinke
Ryan Zinke is Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
Timeline
| 1999.06.14 | Military records show Ryan Zinke was caught in a "pattern of fraud." while working for SEAL Team 6. theintercept.com |
| 2012 | Ryan Zinke used techniques thought up as a joke by comedian Stephen Colbert as part of a scheme to bypass campaign donation laws. motherjones.com |
| 2016.12.13 | Trump nominates Montana congressman Ryan Zinke to lead Department of the Interior washingtonpost.com (See also Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.01.31 | In a new bill House Republicans move to sell off 3.3m acres of national land, the size of Connecticut, sparking rallies and uniting hunters and conservationists in opposition theguardian.com (See also Environment, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management) |
| 2017.03.01 | The Senate confirms Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Department of the Interior, 68-31, with all voting Republicans and 17 members of the Democratic caucus backing him. cnn.com (See also First 100 Days, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.03.02 | Ryan Zinke overturns a federal ban on hunting with lead ammunition in national parks and wildlife refuges. doi.gov (See also Department of the Interior, Environment) |
| 2017.07.26 | In response to Senator Murkowski voting against the ACA repeal, Trump and his administration responded by tweeting at her and a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy. adn.com (See also Health Care, Affordable Care Act, Unpresidential Behavior, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.09.17 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that Donald Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites, but the White House has refused to release this recommendation to the public. washingtonpost.com (See also Assaults on Government, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.10.02 | The Interior Department’s inspector general's office has opened an investigation into Secretary Ryan Zinke’s use of taxpayer-funded charter planes, including a $12,000 trip from Las Vegas to an airport hear his hometown in Montana, and another trip in the Caribbean. politico.com (See also Department of the Interior, Corruption) |
| 2017.10.05 | Republican donors paid up to $5,000 per couple for a photo with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at a fundraiser held during a taxpayer-funded trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, frequently mixing politics with his Interior duties. politico.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.10.23 | Whitefish Energy, a two-year-old company, had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall, but from the same hometown as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, signed a $300 million contract to repair large portions of Puerto Rico's electrical infratructure. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of the Interior, Unprecedented Actions) The scale of the disaster in Puerto Rico is far larger than anything Whitefish has handled. The company has won two contracts from the Energy Department, including $172,000 to replace a metal pole structure and splice in three miles of new conductor and overhead ground wire in Arizona. |
| 2017.10.24 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has directed millions of dollars in political contributions since 2014 to a network of Washington operatives that prominent conservatives have accused of profiting by misleading donors. politico.com (See also Department of the Interior, Corruption) |
| 2017.10.25 | Members of Congress from both parties on Tuesday called for an investigation into a $300 million contract to restore power to Puerto Rico, awarded to a small 2-person company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana. apnews.com (See also Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.10.27 | A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company's relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract. thehill.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2017.10.30 | The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority cancelled the highly disputed $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy, a tiny American company tasked with restoring power to the still storm-ravaged island. npr.org (See also Conflicts of Interest, Department of the Interior, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2017.12.04 | Donald Trump signed two presidential proclamations to scale back the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, opening federally-owned public lands for private development. axios.com (See also Department of the Interior, Domestic Policy) The Bears Ears monument is shrinking from 1.5 million acres to 220,000 acres and the Grand Staircase-Escalante is going from 2 million acres to 1 million acres. |
| 2017.12.05 | One day after Donald Trump ordered an unprecedented reduction of a pair of national monuments in Utah, his administration announced plans to modify a slew of other protected wildlands scattered across the country, including shrinking Gold Butte National Monument, a nearly 300,000-acre site in Nevada, and Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which spans just over 100,000 acres on the California–Oregon border. buzzfeed.com (See also Department of the Interior, Environment) |
| 2017.12.05 | Outdoor gear company Patagonia says it will take legal action over Donald Trump's move to dramatically shrink two national monuments in Utah. money.cnn.com (See also Legal Issues, Environment, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.12.07 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spent more than $14,000 on government helicopters this summer to take himself and staff to and from official events near Washington, D.C., in order to accommodate his attendance at a swearing-in ceremony for his replacement in Congress, and a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence. politico.com (See also Department of the Interior, Mike Pence, Corruption) |
| 2017.12.08 | Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia and other retailers have filed a lawsuit this week over Donald Trump's announcement cutting Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent. chron.com (See also Department of the Interior, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.12.15 | A study about the dangers of mountaintop coal mining has been suspended by the Trump administration. buzzfeed.com (See also Department of the Interior, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.12.15 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke brought the leader of a California park to his office last month to reprimand him for climate change-related tweets the park had sent via Twitter. thehill.com (See also Climate Change, Environment, Assaults on Facts, Department of the Interior) |
| 2017.12.22 | The Trump administration halted an independent offshore oil drilling review, which was aimed at improving inspections of industry platforms, like the one responsible for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. buzzfeed.com (See also Department of the Interior, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.12.23 | The Trump administration moved to renew leases for a copper and nickel mining operation on the border of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, reversing a decision made by Barack Obama, marking a win for the Chilean mining firm belonging to the family of billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who rents a home to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in Washington. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Department of the Interior, Reversals, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Corruption) |
| 2017.12.28 | The Trump administration is rolling back offshore drilling rules put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. bloomberg.com (See also Environment, Reversals, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.01.04 | The Trump administration will allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States waters, giving the energy industry broad access to drilling rights in most parts of the outer continental shelf, including Pacific waters near California, Atlantic waters near Maine and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, reversing a ban on drilling, imposed by President Obama in his final days in office, that protected more than 100 million offshore acres along the Arctic and Eastern Seaboard. nytimes.com (See also Department of the Interior, Energy, Environment, Reversals) |
| 2018.01.09 | The Trump administration said Tuesday it wouldn't allow oil drilling off the coast of Florida, abruptly reversing course under pressure from Republican Gov. Rick Scott, during a meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. nbcnews.com (See also Reversals, Conflicts of Interest, Department of the Interior, Environment) |
| 2018.01.10 | Climate information has been condensed or excised from the websites of at least six federal agencies under the first year of the Trump administration. buzzfeed.com (See also Climate Change, Environment, Assaults on Facts, Assaults on Government, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, Scott Pruitt) |
| 2018.01.17 | More than three-quarters of the members of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service have quit out of frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year, leaving the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmark washingtonpost.com (See also Assaults on Government, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.02.16 | After less than 13 months, more than 40 percent of the people Trump originally picked for Cabinet-level jobs have faced ethical or other controversies. washingtonpost.com (See also Administration Errors, Trump Cabinet, Corruption, Conflicts of Interest, Tom Price, Steven Mnuchin, John Kelly, Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson) |
| 2018.02.24 | An ethics watchdog group has asked the Interior Department’s Inspector General to investigate Zinke over an alleged violation of a federal conflict of interest law after reports surfaced that he assisted a Montana–based gun manufacturer and vendor of which he is a shareholder. splinternews.com (See also Department of the Interior, Conflicts of Interest) |
| 2018.03.02 | Interior Department emails indicated that oil exploration was the central factor in the decision to shrink Bears Ears Monument in Utah. nytimes.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior, Environment) |
| 2018.03.08 | Records show the Interior Department spent nearly $139,000 last year for construction at the agency that was labeled on a work order as “Secretary’s Door.” apnews.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior) WASHINGTON (AP) — Records show the Interior Department spent nearly $139,000 last year for construction at the agency that was labeled on a work order as "Secretary's Door." |
| 2018.03.12 | Donald Trump Jr. has a previously undisclosed business relationship with a longtime hunting buddy who helped raise millions of dollars for his father’s 2016 presidential campaign and has had special access to top government officials since the election. apnews.com (See also Corruption, Conflicts of Interest, Donald Trump Jr, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.03.16 | A new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to Donald Trump and his family. apnews.com (See also Department of the Interior, Conflicts of Interest, Corruption) |
| 2018.05.03 | As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces a seemingly endless stream of scandal, his team is scrambling to divert the spotlight to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, by shopping negative stories about Zinke to multiple press outlets. theatlantic.com (See also Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency, Corruption, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.05.22 | The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens. nbcnews.com (See also Reversals, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.06.19 | A foundation established by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and headed by his wife is playing a key role in a real-estate deal backed by the chairman of Halliburton, the oil-services giant that stands to benefit from any of the Interior Department’s decisions to open public lands for oil exploration or change standards for drilling. politico.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Department of the Interior, Corruption, Nepotism, Environment) |
| 2018.07.10 | Donald Trump pardoned a pair of Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving out five-year sentences for arson on federal land — punishments that inspired the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016. nytimes.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Department of the Interior) |
| 2018.07.18 | The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has launched a full investigation into a real estate deal involving a foundation established by Ryan Zinke and developers including Halliburton Chairman David Lesar, which will focus on whether Zinke violated conflict of interest laws. politico.com (See also Department of the Interior, Conflicts of Interest, Corruption) |
| 2018.07.23 | In a quest to shrink national monuments last year, senior Interior Department officials dismissed evidence that these public sites boosted tourism and spurred archaeological discoveries, according to documents the department released this month and retracted a day later. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of the Interior, False Statements, Corruption) |
| 2018.08.13 | The US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has blamed environmentalists for California’s ferocious wildfires and claimed, contrary to scientific research, that climate change had “nothing to do” with them, instead blaming limits on logging. theguardian.com (See also Assaults on Facts, Department of the Interior, Climate Change) |
| 2018.09.18 | The Trump administration reversed a regulation designed to prevent methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, from escaping into the atmosphere during oil and gas operations. nytimes.com (See also Department of the Interior, Reversals, Climate Change, Environment) |
| 2018.10.16 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was the subject of 14 separate government investigations, but that number could soon be zero because he has fired the Department of the Interior’s acting inspector general, who did not know about this until it was reported in the press, and will be replaced by a Republican lawyer who worked on the Trump campaign and will likely be able to fill the role without needing to go through Senate confirmation. outsideonline.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior, Conflicts of Interest) |
| 2018.10.30 | The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has referred one of its probes into the conduct of Secretary Ryan Zinke to the Justice Department for further investigation. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of the Interior, Corruption, Conflicts of Interest) |
| 2018.11.30 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke accused the House Natural Resources Committee's top Democrat of "drunken" behavior and paying "hush money" after the Democrat called for the secretary to resign for his series of ethics scandals. politico.com (See also Corruption, Department of the Interior, Unprecedented Actions) “It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke wrote on Twitter. |
| 2018.12.15 | Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke submitted his resignation to the White House, facing intense pressure to step down because of multiple probes tied to his real estate dealings in his home state of Montana and his conduct while in office. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of the Interior, Corruption, Resignations and Dismissals) |