Trump’s Interior Chief Gets Criminal Referral Over Water Project

An alleged illegal quid pro quo between former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and an Arizona developer is being referred for investigation to the Justice Department by the House Natural Resources Committee’s Democratic majority.

The criminal referral involves a 2017 US Fish and Wildlife Service decision to drop longstanding objections to the Army Corps of Engineers issuing a Clean Water Act permit to developer Michael Ingram’s proposed 28,000-unit housing development along the San Pedro River near Benson, Ariz.

A committee investigation found evidence that Ingram and other donors gave $241,000 to the Trump Victory Fund and the Republican National Committee in exchange for the Fish and Wildlife Service dropping its objection to the permit, the committee said in a statement.

The action marks the first time in this session of Congress that the Natural Resources Committee has sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department. The department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Development Project

The committee said Bernhardt, who was deputy Interior secretary at the time, met with Ingram during an undisclosed private breakfast in Montana in August 2017. The Fish and Wildlife Service in October dropped its objections shortly after Ingram donated the money to the Trump campaign.

The development—the Villages at Vigneto—would be built on land owned by El Dorado Holdings, Inc., which is owned by Ingram, near the San Pedro River, a drought-ravaged ecosystem containing critical habitat for endangered species.

The project required a permit from the Army Corps because it would involve pumping groundwater that feeds the river, affecting waters that are protected under the Clean Water Act as waters of the US.

“In this case, our oversight uncovered that the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior overruled local career professionals and reversed a longstanding position on environmental review requirements, just weeks after politically connected donors made nearly a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of contributions benefiting the Trump campaign,” said Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), chair of the committee’s oversight subcommittee.

‘False, Misleading, Unfair’

Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for Ingram, disputed information in the referral.

“The referral sent by Chairman Grijalva and Subcommittee Chairwoman Porter is false, misleading, unfair, and strikes me as reminiscent of McCarthyism’s use of innuendo as a surrogate for fact,” said Davis, a partner at Davis Goldberg & Galper PLLC.

He told Bloomberg Law that El Dorado acted in full transparency with the committee and he will meet with committee members to persuade them that the criminal referral is unjust and does not address all the facts of the case.

Davis said he is confident that the agency’s decision was made “on the merits” and not due to political influence.

Bernhardt also disputed the validity of the committee’s referral.

The referral “letter is a pathetic act by politicians, whose progressive green new deal agenda has harmed our economy, brought historic inflation and failed the American public, to change the subject,” Bernhardt said in an email. “It is not worth the paper it’s printed on and nothing will come of it.”