by Jim Hᴏft at thegatewaypundit.com
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland faced intense scrutiny from Senator Josh Hawley during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday.
The hearing, intended to review the President’s fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of the Interior, quickly turned into a pointed interrogation over allegations of secret meetings and corruption within the department.
Deb Haaland from New Mexico became the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary after Joe Biden nominated her to lead the Interior Department.
On Thursday, Sen. Hawley questioned the Secretary about the department’s alleged meetings with undisclosed dark money groups, suggesting a hidden influence over department policies.
“Biden’s Interior department has *off the books* meeting with liberal dark money group funded by foreign billionaire, conceals it from the public, then does everything they want. In this case, canceling critical mining in the US. To benefit China,” Hawley wrote on X.
“In July of 2021, after you had come to office, members of the Wilderness Society, when they’re suing the department, write to your top deputy [former Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau] and ask for a meeting to keep and keep it off of his calendar,” Hawley revealed during the hearing.
“Here it is: July 14, 2021- Can we set up a meeting with these folks? July 19, 2021- They propose how they might calibrate this so it doesn’t look like they’re violating any of the court’s rules. And remarkably, it stays days completely off of everybody’s calendars.”