"Citing his past lobbying work, Campaign Legal Center and two senators allege Bernhardt’s involvement in Western water issues violates Trump ethics pledge"
"An ethics watchdog group filed a complaint Thursday with the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General, alleging that Acting Secretary David Bernhardt violated federal ethics rules by working to weaken protections for imperiled fish species and to expand California farmers’ access to water, even though he once lobbied on behalf of a massive agricultural water district that stood to benefit from the changes.
The request came on the same day that two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), asked Interior’s inspector general and designated ethics official to look into the matter.
The calls for an independent probe, based in part on stories published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other outlets, centers on Bernhardt’s role in Interior’s push to conduct an environmental analysis of proposed changes to federal and state water projects in California, a move that could free up more water for his former client, Westlands Water District. Bernhardt, whom President Trump has tapped to serve as his next Interior secretary, represented the water district at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck before joining the administration a year and-a-half ago."
Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post February 28, 2019.
SEE ALSO:
"Top Leader at Interior Dept. Pushes a Policy Favoring His Former Client" (New York Times)
Advertisement 
