While Donald Trump is urging William Barr to investigate and file charges against all real and imagined enemies, the DOJ seems “surprisingly” reticent about investigating the unlawful behavior of many members the administration. Take for instance William Pendley, currently defying a court order that he vacate his present position as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. The Wyoming native first gained bad press back when he was deputy interior secretary for energy and minerals in the Reagan administration, and was allowed to run amok under the “supervision” of Interior Secretary James Watt, who believed that there was no need to protect the environment or public lands because “Armageddon” was coming soon and it wouldn’t matter anyhow. Pendley and others were accused of leasing to coal mining companies government lands at bargain basement prices, and was subsequently “reassigned,” although since then his reputation as a junior Watt has not been tempered.
With far-right activists like Pendley, it isn’t difficult to understand what their “philosophy” is, at least in regard to the environment and public lands: if nobody has a name on it, its back to the wild, wild west free-for-all, like the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893 for “unassigned” territory that had been previously “assigned” to Native American tribes for perpetuity. As an attorney for Mountain States Legal Foundation, which was founded by Watt, Pendley fought against and mocked Native American rights in Montana, Wyoming and Utah in favor of drilling, mining and logging interests; he applauded the 85 percent reduction of the Bear Ears National Monument by the Trump administration, calling the Antiquities Act “ridiculous.” Pendley has also expressed far-right extremist views, such as giving public support to armed militias on public lands, and has gone off “message” on occasion, particularly in regard to race relations and immigration.
According to the Associate Press, “He has written books accusing federal authorities and environmental advocates of ‘tyranny’ and ‘waging war on the West.’ He argued in a 2016 National Review article that the ‘Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.’ In tweets this summer, Pendley has welcomed Trump administration moves to open more federal land to mining and oil and gas development and other private business use, and he has called the oil and gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, ‘an energy, economic, AND environmental miracle!’”
Pendley’s unfitness for his post was further revealed by financial records that showed “dozens” of conflicts of interest. According to the Wilderness Society, among his “conflicts” that made him unfit to head the BLM included “a ‘lifelong payment’ annuity from the MSLF, which is dedicated to eroding public lands protections.”
Pendley’s frequent attacks on the authority of the Bureau of Land Management naturally made him the “perfect” candidate to head the agency in the Trump administration; he was installed as its “acting” director in July of 2019. However, since this anti-environmental regulation, opposition of the Endangered Species Act and climate change denying is even too extreme for some Republicans in the Senate, he had a snowball’s chance in hell of being confirmed to the position this past summer, and his nomination was shelved; the administration simply extended his “acting” appointment.
The effort to confirm Pendley legally in his position came after Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, along with conservation groups, filed a lawsuit against Pendley, arguing that the Trump administration was abusing temporary appointments authority in extending the “acting” position for Pendley and others, since the Federal Vacancies Reform Act bars a temporary “acting” appointment for longer than 210 days. Since Pendley had been in his position for twice that long, on September 25 a federal judge ruled that he was now illegally in his position and that he was to be removed immediately as director of the BLM. The Interior Department called the ruling “outrageous.”
On September 30, the Interior Department announced that it would not name a new acting director, but that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt would “fill in” for the time being. But something got crossed up in the wiring because Pendley, claiming that he had the full support of Trump, declared that he had no intention of vacating his position, stating that he in fact had never actually been “officially” appointed as acting director of the BLM, and thus he could start all over again. Pendley told a Wyoming newspaper that the ruling had “has no impact, no impact whatsoever” and that “I have the support of the president, I have the support of the secretary of the interior and my job is to get out and get things done to accomplish what the president wants to do.” That apparently includes actions that the judge blocked from being implemented during the time that Pendley was illegally in his position.
Of course what all of this this tells us is that we have a lawless president who can ignore court orders, and he has the “authority” to allow his underlings to ignore the law as well. Trump has been doing this for four years now; can this country stand any more of this deliberate lawbreaking before it becomes “accepted” practice? The fact that the courts cannot enforce their own rulings because of an extreme definition of “executive privilege” suggests a level of dictatorial power that should never have been allowed to fester as it has. This is why Trump should have been impeached earlier this year for abuse of power, and it is yet another reason why he should not be reelected this November.
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