WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Another Department of the Interior (DOI) official is being accused of violating federal ethics laws and the Biden Ethics Pledge.
Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a complaint with the DOI’s inspector general alleging that Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management, improperly participated in matters relating to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)’s oil and gas program.
Daniel-Davis previously served as chief of staff to DOI secretaries Sally Jewell and Ken Salazar under former President Obama.
“On an issue that has been such a huge magnet for controversy, one would think the Department of the Interior would want to make sure that all the T’s were crossed and the I’s dotted,” said Michael Chamberlain, PPT director.
Environmental and conservation organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), oppose ANWR, also known as the Coastal Plain of Alaska.
Prior to working for the Obama Administration and now the Biden Administration, Daniel-Davis was chief of policy and advocacy at NWF, which was a plaintiff in litigation challenging an August 2020 leasing plan, proposed seismic permits, and actual leases offered in January 2021.
“As evidenced by the recent IG report revealing an ethics violation by one of the Department’s top leadership as well as the potential missteps PPT has uncovered, adherence to ethical obligations does not appear to be at the top of the priority list at Secretary Haaland’s Department,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline.
An Aug. 18 Office of the Inspector General report of investigation found that the Departmental Ethics Office (DEO) did not identify Former Employer 1 as one of Nada Culver’s former employers for purposes of the Ethics Pledge under the interim ethics guidance it issued and that this contributed to a violation.
Culver is the Bureau of Land Management’s deputy director of policy and programs.
“It’s little wonder the American public’s trust in government is at an all-time low,” Chamberlain added.
The complaint against Daniel-Davis is based on public records obtained by PPT and asks DOI Inspector General Mark Greenblatt whether Daniel-Davis has “switched sides” in an effort to advance the litigation objectives of WNF, her former employer.
“At a minimum, this connection creates a reasonable appearance of impropriety,” the complaint states. “At worst, it suggests that Ms. Daniel-Davis may have participated personally and substantially in a particular matter in which her former employer was an interested party.”