"The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke used personal email accounts for official business, a matter that has become part of a larger criminal probe into the departed official, according to a letter released by House Democrats on Tuesday.
The letter is the first public confirmation of a criminal investigation into Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana who faced scrutiny about his mixing of official, personal and political business while in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
The Interior Department's acting inspector general, Gail Ennis, told the lawmakers that the email investigation has been combined with an ongoing probe the IG is conducting with DOJ. That larger probe includes Zinke's participation in a land deal with the chairman of Halliburton, as well as Interior's obstruction of a tribal casino project in Connecticut following extensive lobbying by a rival casino company, both issues that were first reported by POLITICO."
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