"Daniel Jorjani, a former Koch brothers adviser and Interior solicitor nominee, told agency colleagues in 2017 that “our job is to protect the Secretary.”"
"Democrats blasted Daniel Jorjani, the nominee to serve as the Interior Department’s top lawyer, during a confirmation hearing Thursday for his 2017 email telling agency colleagues that “our job is to protect the Secretary” from ethics probes and bad press.
In the March 2017 exchange, released as part of an open records request posted to the department’s website and first reported on by HuffPost, Jorjani raised concerns about an Interior staffer’s $4,000 six-day trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former staffer, Russell Roddy, had traveled to the Virgin Islands in preparation for a trip that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took that spring.
In his email, Jorjani warned Roddy that “$4,000 for a six day advance in the Virgin Islands is not a small [sum] and will draw the [Office of the Inspector General’s] attention.” He added in parentheses: “OIG’s love travel investigations. They are easy to document and spin in a negative way.”
Jorjani then boasted that he had “worked and successfully protected” Interior appointees facing investigations from the department’s internal watchdog and said it was Interior staffers’ responsibility to keep Zinke out of trouble. “At the end of the day our job is to protect the Secretary,” he wrote."
Chris D’Angelo reports for HuffPost May 2, 2019.
SEE ALSO:
"Interior: Democrats Push Back On Solicitor Nominee" (Greenwire)
"Dems Grill Top Interior Lawyer Alongside Nominee Who Will Investigate Him" (The Hill)
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