Thanks, Obama!

Interior Department Says It Can’t Explain Zinke’s Private Jet Use Because of Obama

Apparently it’s Obama’s fault that Ryan Zinke’s office can’t produce documents to justify his use of government jets.
barack obama
By Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images.

Earlier this year, a not-insignificant-number of Trump officials were revealed to have a problem: addicted to flying private, the richest Cabinet in history compounded the issue by deciding it was appropriate to bill taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to support their regular travel on government planes or chartered jets. Erstwhile Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, for example, was forced to resign when it was reported that his tab for such travel had nearly hit seven figures. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who thought it was appropriate to ask if he could use a $25,000-an-hour government plane for his honeymoon, also came under fire for his August #daytrip to Kentucky with wife Louise Linton. (The couple subsequently reimbursed the Treasury for the cost of the flight.)

Then there was Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose $20,000 in taxpayer-funded flights raised a number of eyebrows, particularly as some of his trips were allegedly to meet with donors and political groups, in violation of the Hatch Act. Zinke responded to the controversy by declaring it to be “complete and utter bullshit,” a defense that might carry a bit more water if he could turn over slightly more than barely any documentation in his defense. Unfortunately, according to The Washington Post, he has been unable to do so.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has failed to keep complete records—and in some cases, kept none at all—of his travel since taking office, the agency’s watchdog told department officials this week, saying that management of Zinke’s travel was “deficient” and lacked oversight. A rare alert Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall sent to the secretary’s office Wednesday, obtained by The Washington Post, said her investigation into allegations of improper travel practices by Zinke has been stymied by “absent or incomplete documentation for several pertinent trips.” Interior lawyers and ethics officials also have not shown evidence to investigators that they have been able to “distinguish between personal, political and official travel” or cost-analysis documents to justify his choice of military or charter flights, Kendall wrote. The memo reveals that the inspector general is also scrutinizing the travel of Zinke’s wife, Lolita, who often accompanied him on official trips. Kendall wrote that the department’s documentation was so lacking that investigators cannot determine “the full extent” of her travel and how it was paid for.

And here’s the kicker: according to Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, this is all Barack Obama’s fault. “When I arrived at the Department in August 2017, it was clear to me that the Secretary and I inherited an organizational and operational mess from the previous administration,” Bernhardt wrote in response to Kendall. “From my perspective . . . it appears that the exact same [travel] procedures and processes utilized by the previous Administration remain in place and continue to be dysfunctional.”