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After a two-year investigation into an outrageous settlement
that gave a politically-connected Wyoming rancher named Frank
Robbins virtually carte blanche authority to violate federal
grazing laws, the Department of the Interior's Inspector General
Earl E. Devaney placed blame squarely upon the Office of Solicitor,
headed by Solicitor William Myers. Yesterday, the President
renominated Myers to a lifetime appointment on the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
In a letter dated February 10, 2005 to Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Devaney summarized his
completed but yet-to-be released investigation. (Click
here to read that letter in PDF format). According to
Devaney, Myers' office "circumvented" normal negotiation
processes, shut the BLM out of the negotiations, ignored concerns
raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, engaged in "an
inappropriate level of programmatic involvement" and
presided over a negotiation and agreement process that suffered
from a "profound lack of transparency." As a result,
the public trust was broken. As Devaney understates it in
his letter: "the interests of BLM and those of individual
BLM employees were not adequately protected by the terms of
the settlement agreement."
An earlier investigation by Delaney, released in November
2003 confirms that Myers was personally briefed on the status
of the Robbins settlement on several occasions. (see
footnote 1 below). This report thus raises important new
questions about Myers' fitness for confirmation to a lifetime
seat on the federal appellate bench at the same time that
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) is trying to move the Myers nomination,
without a hearing, through the Judiciary Committee and convince
Democratic Senators to abandon their filibuster.
Doug Kendall, Community Rights Counsel's Executive Director,
responded to the new report on Myers stating:
Arlen Specter is a former prosecutor and a good one. He
knows more than anyone how important it is to get the facts
straight before rushing to judgment. This report raises
very serious questions about the operations of the Office
of the Solicitor under Mr. Myers. Myers' role in this matter
must be fully explored by the Senate Judiciary Committee
before any new votes on this nomination.
For background information, click
here.
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1 Calendar entries, obtained
through FOIA, indicate that Myers attended a meeting with
Bob Comer, Regional Solicitor, Denver, Colo., to discuss the
settlement on Nov. 21, 2002. Additionally, the Inspector General's
recent investigation of Myers' dealings with former clients
confirms that meeting and at least one other specific occasion
on which Myers discussed the agreement with Comer. The IG
interviewed both Comer and Myers regarding these meetings,
and Comer said in reference to an October 2, 2002, meeting
that he "had been working on this settlement since May
2002" and had "occasionally briefed [Myers] on the
status of it." Office
of the Inspector General, Report of Investigation, PI-NM-03-0309-I
(Nov. 24, 2003) at 26. Myers himself described the Nov.
21, 2002 meeting, saying "Comer was the lead attorney
from the SOL who was responsible for providing legal advice
on the settlement and Comer likely wanted to provide Myers
with an update on the status of the pending settlement."
Id. at 32. Myers thus clearly had ongoing knowledge of
the progress and terms of this unusual settlement agreement.
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