A top Interior Department lawyer likely violated a federal ethics law by taking part in matters involving her former employer and clients, two watchdog groups charge in a fresh complaint filed with the department’s inspector general.
The complaint filed Tuesday alleges that Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland‘s senior counselor, Elizabeth Klein, failed to disclose to ethics officials in full the scope of her work as deputy director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, a position she held for almost the entirety of the Trump administration. The center, funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, placed lawyers in the offices of Democratic state attorneys general that helped file over 130 regulatory and legal challenges against Trump-era federal environmental policies.
Ethics officials advised Klein in June to abstain for one year from any matters involving the states of Massachusetts, Washington, Minnesota, New York, and Maryland after following her disclosure in a January 2021 email that she struck agreements with the attorneys general of those states as part of her work with the center. But records obtained by watchdog groups Energy Policy Advocates and Protect the Public’s Trust show that Klein was also a party in center’s agreements with five other states and Washington, D.C., that she does not appear to have disclosed to ethics officials.
“If [Klein] has duties to her former clients who are suing the government using Mike Bloomberg’s money, she can’t also serve in the government and respond to those same clients’ legal complaints or petitions,” Energy Policy Advocates board member Matthew Hardin told the Washington Examiner.
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Records included in the complaint show that Klein was the primary point of contact in agreements the center struck with the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon, New Mexico, Illinois, and Washington, D.C. The agreements stated that the center would fund a legal fellow to work in the office of the attorney general for each state, who would then collaborate with the center on clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal matters, as well as coordinate on related public announcements.
“Under Ms. Klein’s current ethics obligations, it would appear she almost certainly participated or was involved in particular matters involving her former (undisclosed) clients,” the complaint reads.
Energy Policy Advocates and Protect the Public’s Trust said in their complaint that the center’s published list of “wins” for 2021 includes several Interior Department policies that Klein may have worked on as Haaland’s senior counselor.
“The American people deserve to know that public servants have disclosed all the work they did in the private sector and recused from decisions that might benefit their former employers,” Energy Policy Advocates Executive Director Rob Schilling said in a press release. “We hope the Inspector General will take a close look at these records and investigate whether Ms. Klein inappropriately failed to disclose her private employment or to recuse herself from decisions involving her former clients.”
The center was launched in 2017 with the help of a $6 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Republican state attorneys general took umbrage with the center for its efforts to embed privately funded attorneys into state attorney offices to push back against Trump-era regulations and fossil fuel companies.
Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain said Klein could face penalties ranging from a slap on the wrist to termination if the Interior Department inspector general finds that she concealed the full extent of her work with the center from ethics officials.
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Klein has served as Haaland’s senior counselor since January 2021. She was President Joe Biden’s initial pick to serve as deputy secretary of the Interior Department, but her nomination was withdrawn in March following opposition from centrist senators over her advocacy against the use of fossil fuels.
The Interior Department declined to comment.
