Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who is expected to have a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate this month, is currently fighting a document request from House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, who wants to see Bernhardt’s calendars. Bernhardt’s public calendars have been exceptionally vague, consisting largely of “external” and “internal” meetings, and omitting other meetings, including two with the president of the American Petroleum Institute.
Rather than reveal who he meets with and what he’s working on to help his former clients, Bernhardt snarked back at Grijavla with a letter that talked a lot about transparency while actually doubling down on secrecy.
The Center for Western Priorities has obtained an early draft* of that letter with comments and suggested changes from Bernhardt that reveal his true motives.
*Not really. The letter is real. The comments and markup are not.