Today, the Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report titled “Investigative Report of Misconduct by a Senior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Law Enforcement Manager.” Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) released the following statement:

“After numerous reports substantiating serious allegations of misconduct including the destruction of federal records, defiance of congressional document requests and misuse of ancient artifacts under investigation as office decor, I expect Interior to hold Dan Love accountable. The people of Utah and Nevada — and the American taxpayers — deserve better.

“I look forward to seeing how this Administration responds to the unethical behavior uncovered by the report. We must take steps to restore trust in federal law enforcement officers and hold employees accountable for their mismanagement of our taxpayer resources.”

Background

The report looked into multiple allegations including the mishandling of evidence from a criminal case, which Love eventually gave as gifts to several people. DOI OIG substantiated most of the allegations including that Love instructed his employee to remove four moqui marbles from the evidence room and that he violated Federal security and records management policy in addition to various regulations related to the conduct of federal employees.

Yesterday, Chairman Bishop sent a letter to Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall requesting an unredacted copy of the report, which was received by the Committee this morning. Click here to read the full letter.