Two members of Congress asked federal officials Tuesday to investigate Wyoming lawyer Karen Budd-Falen for possible criminal violations while serving in President Donald Trump’s Interior Department.
A letter from Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., to the Interior Department’s acting inspector general cites “new evidence … that demands immediate investigation.”
The correspondence under the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources letterhead focuses on a water contract between Budd-Falen’s family ranch in Nevada, a lithium mining company and Interior Department approval of the Thacker Pass Lithium mine in that state.
Reps. Huffman and Dexter question whether Budd-Falen, the third-highest-ranking person at DOI, “used her position at the DOI for self-enrichment,” violated ethical standards and broke federal law. The committee members’ Tuesday letter to Acting DOI Inspector General Caryl Brzymialkiewicz alleges the Nevada Lithium Corporation’s $3.5 million water contract with Budd-Falen family’s Home Ranch in Nevada was contingent on federal Interior Department approval.
Ms. Budd-Falen’s financial interests and official activities may have implicated federal ethics and conflict-of-interest restrictions, and possibly violations of federal criminal law.”
Jared Huffman and Maxine Dexter
The two representatives, citing reports by Public Domain, the New York Times and other sources, said Budd-Falen never disclosed that her family’s ranch in Nevada had inked a deal with the Nevada Lithium Corporation. Federal law and ethic rules require strict financial disclosures and reporting by political appointees like Budd-Falen.
“Recently uncovered evidence … raises … serious questions, including whether Ms. Budd-Falen’s financial interests and official activities may have implicated federal ethics and conflict-of-interest restrictions, and possibly violations of federal criminal law,” the letter states.
Huffman is the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee and represents California’s second district along the coast north of San Francisco. Dexter represents most of Portland, Oregon, and is the top Democrat on the committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee.
Budd-Falen, a longtime Western conservative legal activist, served in the Interior Department during Trump’s first administration and was appointed in March as the agency’s associate deputy secretary. Between those periods of government service she worked at the Budd-Falen law office in Cheyenne.
Serious questions
The 12-page letter from the representatives documents a meeting between Budd-Falen and the Nevada Lithium Corporation at the Department of Interior during Trump’s first term. The letter also catalogs a series of actions between and among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and high-ranking Interior Department officials regarding mine approval.
The letter outlines how worries about environmental and wildlife protections — protections that could have stalled or blocked mine approval — were overridden by department officials.
“The record unequivocally reflects an official meeting between Ms. Budd-Falen and the Nevada Lithium Corporation scheduled during the pending federal review for the Thacker Pass lithium mine, combined with a continuing, multi-million-dollar financial interest tied to the project’s success,” the committee members wrote.
“These facts raise serious questions regarding Ms. Budd-Falen’s compliance with federal ethics and conflict-of-interest laws and warrant the immediate attention of your office….”
Huffman and Dexter acknowledge a shifting legal landscape in government, but draw a line.
“While the Supreme Court has given President Trump a virtual free pass to abuse the public’s trust to enrich himself, public corruption by those he installs in federal agencies is still unlawful,” their letter reads. Consequently, they asked the acting DOI inspector for several answers.
Among those are whether Budd-Falen’s ranching interests have been appropriately identified as she works on grazing issues for the administration and whether she was required to disclose the $3.5 million deal between her family ranch in Nevada and the mining company.
They want to know whether family business structures obscured the relationships between and among Budd-Falen, the family ranch and the mining company and whether she used her official position to influence federal policy and action regarding mine approval.
The letter seeks an answer to whether officials sidelined objections of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the mine and whether any actions by officials “were intended to delay, frustrate, or limit congressional oversight or public disclosure.”
The White House on Tuesday referred questions to the Department of the Interior. The Interior Department did not respond to an email seeking comment.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso’s office did not respond to a Tuesday email seeking comment. WyoFile did not receive a response to an email on the topic sent to U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis’s office. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s office also did not respond to an email Tuesday.
A conservation group, however, called for Budd-Falen’s suspension.
“At the very least, Secretary Burgum must suspend Karen Budd-Falen pending the outcome of any investigation,” Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Center for Western Priorities said in a statement. “Her lack of candor to ethics officials casts a shadow on anything that crosses her desk today, and on everything that she worked on during the first Trump administration. Because Budd-Falen’s portfolio is so large, the litigation risks posed by her position alone could paralyze the Interior department for years to come.”