Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to depart Trump administration

Dec. 15, 2018 / 2:38 PM GMT

By Phil McCausland and Dartunorro Clark

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will depart his position in the administration at the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced in a tweet on Saturday morning.

The president said in a followup tweet that the White House would announce a replacement next week. Trump choose Zinke in December 2016 to serve in the cabinet-level position.

“[Zinke] has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” the president tweeted.

Zinke, a former a Navy SEAL and Montana’s lone congressman, will leave a legacy as a secretary who rolled back federal lands protections in pursuit of the Trump agenda to increase energy production.

The Interior Department oversees management of about three-quarters of federal land and natural resources, along with programs relating to American Indian and territorial affairs.

The heat on the former congressman over just those concerns has only increased in recent weeks after the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, gaining subpoena power.

As incoming chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Raul Griljalva, D-Ariz., already promised that he planned to force Zinke to testify before the committee over a profitable land deal between his family and Halliburton chairman David Lesar in the secretary’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana.

The concern was over conflict of interest between Zinke’s position and the Halliburton corporation. Zinke’s departure would appear to limit the need for the investigation.

In a USA Today op-ed published Nov. 30, Griljalva called for Zinke to resign immediately, citing some 17 investigations into the secretary and his department. The land deal in Whitefish was recently referred to the Justice Department.

Griljalva said that he planned to investigate Zinke and would also fulfill his role of providing oversight of anyone who replaced Zinke.

“Doing whatever you like and then leaving office a half-step ahead of a formal investigation is not public service, especially if you end up working for an industry you formerly regulated,” Griljalva wrote. “The election results were about clean government as much as any particular policy choice, and the next Interior secretary will be watched as closely as the one before.”

Zinke responded to the congressman in a caustic statement that took aim at Griljalva personally — a counter-punch, rather than a defense.

“It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke shared in a statement he posted to Twitter. “This is coming from a man who used nearly $50,000 in tax dollars as hush money to cover up his drunken and hostile behavior. He should resign and pay back the taxpayer for the hush money and the tens of thousands of dollars he forced my department to spend investigating unfounded allegations.”

Grijalva did pay a former staffer more than $48,000 after she accused him of being drunk and creating a hostile work environment, according to The Arizona Republic. Grijalva admitted to having a drinking problem, but said he had since gotten it under control.