WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Department of Interior denied any wrongdoing Monday after documents surfaced showing government staffers were forced to scramble to accommodate requests from Secretary Ryan Zinke\u2019s wife as she accompanied him on trips outside of Washington D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with good-governance watchdog Public Citizen, told Politico it\u2019s not illegal for spouses to tag along during official trips as long as the government doesn\u2019t pay for the additional expenses. But it can be an ethically gray area, depending on the circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSpousal travel, especially when paid for by the spouse, suggests that the trip may have less to do with official duties and more resembles a family vacation partially paid for by taxpayers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents, which include travel manifests and staff emails, were released Monday by left-leaning, Montana-based Western Values Project and were first reported on by Politico. They show that Lolita Zinke created a list of people she wanted to be invited to a conservative town hall forum in Santa Barbara, California in April. The Washington Post reported Lolita Zinke owns a home in Santa Barbara and accompanied her husband through the state that month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s expecting some of them to bring plus ones and also her list is not yet final,\u201d Ryan Zinke\u2019s special assistant, Caroline Boulton, wrote in an email. \u201cShe\u2019s said that she doesn\u2019t have emails for them all since many of them have been personally told about the event, but I wanted you to have the list!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About a month later, staffers overhauled travel plans on a trip in Alaska after they learned Lolita Zinke wanted to attend a dinner with the state\u2019s governor, Bill Walker, rather than return to Washington as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUGH! We have all kinds of planes, trains and automobiles manifests to now scramble with,\u201d Russell Roddy, who directs scheduling for the Interior Department, wrote to several colleagues in a May 27 email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese emails show that the leadership at the Department of Interior treats basic ethical standards like an inconvenience,\u201d Chris Saeger, executive director of the Western Values Project, wrote in a statement Monday. \u201cIf Secretary Zinke is willing to be so sloppy with something as elementary as this, then god only knows how they\u2019re handling big decisions about energy and public lands behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Interior Department said Lolita Zinke pays her own way when she accompanies her husband on trips, and the travel is approved by ethics officials in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said the department \u201cincurred no expenses due to Mrs. Zinke\u2019s presence\u201d at the meal with Walker, and she called the Western Values Project \u201ca partisan hatchet group run by Democratic campaign staffers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lolita Zinke is the campaign chair for Montana GOP candidate Troy Downing, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. She also volunteered on President Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Washington Post reported she has frequently accompanied her husband at official meetings, including one in April with California Gov. Jerry Brown, an outing that same month to California\u2019s Channel Islands and a congressional delegation trip to Norway, Greenland and Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the Interior Department\u2019s internal watchdog said last week that Ryan Zinke has failed to keep complete records of his taxpayer-financed travel \u2014 hampering an investigation into his use of private charter flights for government business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zinke has brushed off news reports that he took at least three private flights costing taxpayers a total of $20,000 since taking office in March, saying all his travel is ethical and went through proper due diligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Interior denied any wrongdoing Monday after documents surfaced showing government staffers were forced to scramble to accommodate requests from Secretary Ryan Zinke\u2019s wife as she accompanied him on trips outside of Washington D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":40,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,33,9,40],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1304],"class_list":["post-15349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight","category-watchdogs"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KCKNAUIFAZE55OXCBNUSVHEGKY","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2017\/11\/21\/interior-denies-wrongdoing-involving-zinkes-wife-travel\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n