Former President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, now a candidate to return to Congress representing Montana’s 1st District, knowingly misled federal investigators when discussing a controversial casino proposal, according to the Interior Department’s inspector general’s office.
According to the internal watchdog’s report released Wednesday, investigators found that Zinke and his chief of staff, Scott Hommel, made statements that presented an “inaccurate version of the circumstances in which the DOI made key decisions,” leading the office to determine Zinke “did not comply with their duty of candor.”
Investigators noted in the report that they had given their findings to the Justice Department in 2018, but DOJ declined prosecution in this matter in the summer of 2021.
