Ethics Probe Opened on Interior Dept. Lawyer

[DUreader]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0815-03.htm


Published on Friday, August 15, 2003 by the Washington Post
Ethics Probe Opened on Interior Dept. Lawyer
Environmental Groups Allege Conflicts of Interest
by R. Jeffrey Smith

The Interior Department's inspector general yesterday opened a probe into allegations of conflicts of
interest surrounding a series of meetings involving the agency's top lawyer, members of his former
law firm and officials of the cattle industry he represented before joining the Bush administration, the
department announced.

Officials said Solicitor William Gerry Myers III, a former attorney for
ranchers and other grazing interests, requested the review after two
environmental groups complained he had violated his ethics agreement at
the department. Friends of the Earth and Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility lodged their complaint after obtaining
Myers's office calendars through the Freedom of Information Act.

The ethics inquiry by the inspector general is the third involving a top
official of the department. Deputy Secretary James Steven Griles, a
former lobbyist for mining, oil and gas interests, has been the focus of a
probe since May into his own meetings with former clients on key policy
matters, including energy development in Wyoming.

Another ethics probe concerns whether Bureau of Land Management
director Kathleen Burton Clarke, a former Utah director of natural
resources, violated a promise to recuse herself from a controversial land
swap with the state of Utah, which critics alleged was a boon to state
business interests. A report by the inspector general concluded that the
department had undervalued by $116 million the land it was giving to Utah.
The land swap was canceled.

[mjb4]

1. see journalist death investigation

we investigate ourselves. we see no harm. sorry...nothing to see here keep moving....