WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation into whether he redrew the boundaries of a Utah national monument to aid the financial interests of a former Republican state lawmaker, the Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General said in a letter.
"We found no evidence that [former Utah State Representative Michael] Noel influenced the proposed revisions to the [Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument] boundaries," Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall said in a letter to Zinke's deputy David Bernhardt.
Kendall said that neither Zinke nor any other Interior Department employee involved in the project was aware of Noel's financial interest in revising boundaries, or that they gave the state lawmaker any preferential treatment.
Last December, President Donald Trump reduced the size of the monument by 46 percent based on Zinke's recommendation. Noel reportedly owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but due to revisions his land now lies outside its boundaries.
The Inspector General's Office is continuing to investigate Zinke on at least two other issues, including his role in a land development deal in the US state of Montana and the Interior Department's refusal to sign off on a casino deal involving two Native American tribes.
