Watchdog raps Zinke for $12K charter flight

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke could have avoided spending $12,375 on a charter flight following a speech last year to a hockey team owned by a former campaign contributor, according to an audit by the agency’s internal watchdog.

The Interior Department’s inspector general singled out the flight as it released the results of an investigation into Zinke’s travel last year. Although Zinke’s use of chartered flights and U.S. military aircraft during that time frame “generally followed” relevant rules and laws, the June 26, 2017 post-speech trip from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Mont., “could have been avoided,” the inspector general said.

The flight whisked Zinke to his home state of Montana after he delivered a leadership speech on teamwork to dozens of players recently drafted by the Las Vegas’ National Hockey League team, the Golden Knights. The team is owned by billionaire Bill Foley, a chairman of Cannae Holdings Inc. and a donor to Zinke’s past congressional campaigns. Before becoming Interior secretary, Zinke served as Montana’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“If ethics officials had known Zinke’s speech would have no nexus to the DOI, they likely would not have approved this as an official event, thus eliminating the need for a chartered flight,” the inspector general found. “Moreover, had ethics officials been made aware that the Golden Knights’ owner had been a donor to Zinke’s congressional campaign, it might have prompted further review and discussion.”