A brand new whistleblower complaint has been filed, and news of its filing is just starting to hit specialized media. It will be a significant issue for the White House and might shatter the veil of secrecy so valued by the Trump administration. This time, however, the complaint is being brought by one brave man in BLM who is standing right out in the open, named Dave Patterson.

The complaint will not shock anyone. But if it goes high up, it could land people in jail and no one would be exempt.

The public lands in the West are for sale to the right bidders, people that perhaps pay-off officials, perhaps very high officials or THE highest official, to bypass the regulatory process. Breaking from LawandCrime.com:

Specifically, Patterson alleges that numerous BLM functionaries and officials operating under the authority and direction of infamous BLM Director and documented anti-environmental protection zealot William Perry Pendley have ignored their basic obligations under the landmark National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which was signed into law in 1970 by Richard Nixon.

It is exceedingly difficult to distill this down into something that the average person can grasp, but having practiced regulatory law in the West (Water) I can at least assure you that this complaint has the power to shatter the entire administration if the money went high enough up. And what do we know about Donald Trump?

A quick review:

Unlike the East, the Western United States is almost solely owned by the Federal government. If you wander outside of any established town or farm land, if you are on sage, cactus, hills or forests, you are on federal land, almost by definition. The land might be under the Bureau of Land Management – an incredibly powerful department that handles prairies, grazing and desert, it could be the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture including all the national forests, it could be a national park, or national monument, you could be on land controlled by the military – especially in Nevada and Utah, or land that is supposed to be held in trust for the Native American tribes.

If private interests such as oil, petrochemical, mining, or water interests, want to privately develop the government land (as opposed to “buying it” because that is near impossible, or should be), one needs a permit. There is a huge regulatory process one must go through because these lands are some of the few pristine areas of the United States. They are reserved precisely because they haven’t been developed. These are areas where there is a fortune in exploitable resources, and an equally critical need and movement to keep the lands reserved for the sake of having some land stay outside of development, some land where you can hike for three days and not see a soul, or a road.

There has always been a iron-tight tension between the industry that is dying to profit off these lands, and the equally powerful and committed groups that seek to preserve it, such as the Sierra Club, Rivers United, the various Native American tribes. Caught in the middle of this battle are the administrators who have to balance the laws that preserve most of it, and monitor that small portion of development that is permitted and regulated.

That regulation includes endangered species studies, environmental impact studies, a water permit (to release waste or toxins), air permit, and on and on. It is critical because toxins flow downstream, and water is precious in the West. The land itself can become poisoned, ask the the defense contractors all about it.

All of this occurs far away from people who might “see” what is going on. A mine can open that is literally 15 miles from the nearest highway, 40 from the nearest small town. Only the government and the profit-taker “really” know what is happening on the ground.

If that balance is not maintained, if the regulators can be “bought” because he or she isn’t fully committed to the laws, a developer can skip the regulatory process and simply be handed all the permits to allow development, or buy the land outright for pennies. If that system gets in place, it easily becomes like a license to print money. That is not an exaggeration.

An regular administrator could become fantastically rich and “pampered” by industry lobbyists. Please believe me, there are regular people, geologists, forest rangers, administrators employed by the federal government, living on an $85K annual salary with normal families, that suddenly find themselves in a private jet on the way to the best resorts in Aspen or Santa Fe, drinking $400 bottles wine in an exquisite suite, with extremely beautiful women surrounding them, all for a “business conference” to hear about new technology or some other gambit.  That “business” is nothing more than an invitation to pocket $200K and sign-off on permits to a large oil company. The people at the very top? The BLM administrator? The DOJ Environmental division? Or even the White House? They will demand a lot more than $200K.

It happens all the time, at least on a “small scale.” It happens all the time in a normal administration.

But this administration has shown nothing but contempt for laws generally, on every level. At times it seems there is not even a thought about “laws,” only pleasing Trump. This administration specifically hired a director from the most aggressive business side to get to work at giving these permits away – and perhaps for a “fee” to whomever wants in (and it can go all the way to the top, if it is land reserved by a president). Such a process could literally be like robbing Fort Knox.

That is where the Trump administration stands, according to the new complaint:

[Patterson claims Pendley] approved mines and drilling without adequate review, turning the region into a “clearinghouse for federal permits”; and taken personnel off mining inspections in order to expedite development. In one case, according to the complaint, a mining engineer was removed from the review of a high priority open-pit gold mine after making a recommendation to mitigate the long-term effects of toxic wastewater, which the company opposed because of cost. In another case, a group of well-connected families had been allowed to build recreational cabins on public land under the guise that they are actively mining.

What is critical for the reader to understand is that the permit to allow the gold mine with “expedited” approval could easily equal $50 million to the mining company – easily. Why do you think they so strenuously opposed the costs instead of just implementing a safer system? Because it is so expensive to get “right.”

The other thing to consider is that this complaint is simply one filed by one person, Dan Patterson, on the basis of what Dan Patterson personally knows. He is flagging the abuses he has seen with the very common sense assumption that such an administration is doing the same thing “all over,” in other states, with other projects, under other people.

We even have retaliation, already, call it “Getting Vindmaned”:

And, add into the mix a couple claims of potential retaliation as well. Patterson says that once he started asking questions, his access to agency materials was unlawfully limited by a Pendley apparatchik, that he was suspended from work and then taken off certain projects.

“I feel like I’ve been kind of run out of town,” Patterson told Federman.

Patterson and Vindman are in the exact same spot, except Patterson isn’t famous yet. It is the type of complaint where it would almost be sad if Patterson didn’t become famous. It would be because no one paid any attention to it.

What do we know of the government’s administration and whistleblower complaints? Whistleblower complaints are so serious, because the potential for abuse is so strong. Each department is staffed with an inspector general, who is “somewhat” removed from the department because he or she is tasked with nothing but investigating that same department, usually from whistleblower complaints, though not ones this serious. Once the inspector general makes a recommendation – if he or she sees an illegal action likely occurred, the I.G. then … forwards it to Congress, the FBI and Justice Department.

What are the chances that Bill Barr is going to aggressively investigate and prosecute a sham operation that could be profiting people all the way to the top? What do we know about Trump’s response to congressional subpoenas wanting to know what’s going on with the land that their own laws preserved?

More questions, what do we know about Trump’s priorities as president? What has been the one consistent revelation? One after another, profit-taking, in the inauguration committee, in his campaign, charging the Secret Service, landing fees for the Defense Department, one third of his time as president spent on his property, even wanting the G7 to meet on his property. If there is a shakedown going in the west where public lands are being robbed away, is there any way Trump wouldn’t be involved in the profiting?

No one can prove it yet. There is no evidence as to how far up it goes, yet. It would require a serious and secret investigation.

Unfortunately, I am not sure we will ever know. But there could be a few hints. If Barr refuses to investigate. If the administration prevents officials from testifying to congress. If the administration asserts some kind of “privilege” to keep documents away from congress and the press. All could be considered gigantic red flags.

That is what is happening now, straight out of one impeachment process into another giant investigation. The only difference is this one might be a little more complicated than a phone call to Ukraine and extortion, but the profits are every bit as real, perhaps more easily fungible.

Will we ever know? We have to hope that Dan Patterson has the passion and the evidence to push this forward no matter how much it is suppressed.

What we can know is that Donald Trump is likely a little nervous, hearing about a new whistleblower complaint involving government for profit in the West.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom