US investigators: Zinke misused his Interior secretary job

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Government investigators say former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a Montana development project and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement. The Interior Department’s inspector general said Wednesday that Zinke continued working on the commercial project even after he committed to breaking ties when he took office. The report says Zinke gave incorrect and incomplete information to an Interior Department ethics official who confronted him and that Zinke directed his staff to assist him with the project in a misuse of his position. Zinke is running for a Montana congressional seat. His campaign called the report a “political hit job.”