Posters of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are plastered on street corners near the Interior Department offices in 2018. “This is demonstrative of the failures at the very top of this administration to set an ethical tone,” Marsco said. It’s a betrayal of the public trust when senior political appointees seem to give privileged access to their former employers or former clients. Domenech’s calendars indicated that he twice met with representatives from the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation on an endangered species listing and a property dispute. Bernhardt, who was confirmed earlier this month, has denied any wrongdoing and said he has cleared any action affecting his former employer or clients with the department’s ethics office.

Source: Washington Post April 23, 2019 18:12 UTC