Given her daughter’s activism, the watchdog director tells Fox News Digital that “Secretary Haaland could be conflicted on issues under her authority.”
The watchdog director tells Fox News Digital that “Secretary Haaland could be conflicted on issues under her authority.” (Photo: Fox News)
Biden Administration Broke The Law By Withholding Correspondence Involving Haaland’s Daughter
Asserting that the Biden administration broke the law by withholding correspondence involving Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s daughter, a watchdog group filed two federal complaints against it on Monday.
In the lawsuits, one brought against the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the other against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), a non-profit watchdog group, requested that a federal court order the two agencies to cooperate with its information demands. PPT sent information requests to the DOI and BLM on January 2 requesting for interactions with Somah Haaland, her mother, and senior agency officials.
The information requests were made in response to a Fox News Digital report that revealed Somah Haaland had lobbied federal lawmakers on contentious oil and gas leasing issues over which her mother has oversight. The Freedom of Information Act requires the federal government to publicly share certain documents, communications, and information with the public.
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DOI To be Transparent About Any Interaction Between Somah Haaland
According to PPT Director Michael Chamberlain, “Her daughter’s activism and lobbying efforts certainly have the potential to give the public the impression that Secretary Haaland could be conflicted on issues under her authority.” The involvement of a group that lists Somah Haaland among its leaders in the rally that descended into mayhem at the Interior Department headquarters further complicates matters.
The need for the DOI to be more transparent about any interactions and relationships between Somah Haaland and top Department officials, Chamberlain continued, is shown by each of these factors alone. “When combined, this need is heightened.”
According to a December report from Fox News Digital, Somah Haaland, a media organizer for the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a cultural and environmental organization based in New Mexico, traveled to Washington, D.C., with a group of other climate activists to urge lawmakers and federal representatives to prohibit fossil fuel drilling close to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwest New Mexico.
In addition to lobbying lawmakers, the activists showed a movie that “showcases the threats” faced by oil and gas leasing in the area and is narrated by Somah Haaland. Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez and Senator Martin Heinrich both attended the film with “agency officials.”
All conversations between Somah Haaland and seven DOI officials, including her mother and two BLM officials, including the agency’s head Tracy Stone-Manning, were the subject of a PPT information request in early January. The DOI and BLM have still not provided the required information, according to the group’s lawsuit filed on Monday, and they most certainly don’t intend to fulfill their statutory FOIA requirements either.
The ties of Interior authorities to activist organizations that occasionally use contentious tactics constitute anything but a return to normalcy, according to Chamberlain, who claimed that the Biden Administration had pledged such a return.
And PAA Executive Director Julia Bernal boasted in an interview that same year that she met personally with Secretary Haaland, whom she referred to as “Auntie Deb,” to discuss water policy issues and the group’s opposition to oil and gas leasing. Both events occurred in 2021, the same year that the PAA was involved in a violent protest in which climate activists stormed and attempted to breach the DOI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Western Energy Alliance, a sizable energy sector organization located in Denver, asked House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., to launch a probe into the interior secretary’s alleged ethics violations in March in response to recent discoveries regarding Somah Haaland’s activities. A representative for Westerman stated that the congressman had received the request and was considering his options.
On Wednesday, Secretary Haaland is scheduled to give testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee.
Regarding PPT’s legal actions, the DOI declined to comment.
