Between 1998 and 1999, Ryan Zinke, then a Navy SEAL Team 6 officer, traveled to and from his home in Montana and billed the Department of Defense for his travel expenses. According to a report last year by Mathew Cole of The Intercept:
Two SEAL officers investigated Zinke’s records and discovered a yearslong “pattern of travel fraud,” according to two of the sources. When confronted about the trips, Zinke acknowledged that he spent the time repairing and restoring a home in Whitefish, Montana, and visiting his mother, according to two retired SEAL Team 6 leaders. The future lawmaker eventually told SEAL leaders that the Montana house was where he intended to live after he retired from the Navy.
After he was warned, he continued the same behavior until he was kicked off the team. That was a light—very light—punishment for his behavior, which would have resulted in a court martial for any officer not in the high-profile SEAL Team 6. But he got away with reimbursing the government a measly $211 for a single trip, and accepting that commander would be his terminal grade.
No one with knowledge of his past should have been surprised in September when, as secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Zinke chartered a plane that cost the taxpayers $12,375 in order to visit his Montana home after giving a speech in Nevada. Airfare between Las Vegas and Kallispell, Montana, ran about $300 at the time. According to the High Country News:
Zinke’s expensive charter flight took place after he gave a speech to the Vegas Golden Knights, a National Hockey League team. The chairman of title insurance company Fidelity National Financial owns the team. The employees and associated PACs of Fidelity National Financial donated nearly $200,000 to Zinke’s congressional campaigns as well as $1 million to Trump’s campaign.
So yeah, sure, there’s no reason to doubt Zinke when he claims that he had nothing to do with the small-town electricians who won a $300 million contract to re-establish electrical service to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Even though:
The Interior Department sent 50 people to Puerto Rico on Sept. 21, the day after the storm hit, to help with response and recovery operations, including assessments.
And besides, he told us so in a statement that just reeks of honesty, as well as awareness of how our form of government is supposed to work.
I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico. Any attempts by the dishonest media or political operatives to tie me to awarding or influencing any contract involving Whitefish are completely baseless. Only in elitist Washington, D.C., would being from a small town be considered a crime.
Which might be more persuasive if he didn't spend most of his time at his home in Santa Barbara, California.
If his offenses were only financial, they would be far less troubling that what he seems poised to do to our public lands. Somehow we will deal with the financial impact of the most corrupt administration in American history. But how will we ever be able to repair the damage this administration is attempting to cause to our environment?