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Center for Biological Diversity files suit to get information about MacDonald

Posted by: Maven on December 30, 2007 at 8:37 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

Julie McDonald, a corrupt Bush administration official who resigned from her position with the Department of Interior in April during a scandal over her meddling with Endangered Species Act listings, is the subject of litigation launched against the Department by the Center for Biological Diversity on December 27.

The Center filed a lawsuit in federal district court demanding that the U.S. Department of the Interior and one of its agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hand over public documents about former Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary MacDonald. MacDonald abruptly resigned in April 2007 after the exposure of her unlawful interference with dozens of endangered species and habitat decisions by agency scientists, including at least one decision in which she stood to financially benefit.

The species impacted by “egregious corrupt or inept Interior decisions,” include the Sacramento splittail, a native member of the minnow family whose decline in recent years has coincided with those of the delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad.

“Though this fish was listed in 1999, the decision was fought in court by state water authorities and the species was suspiciously delisted in 2003,” according to the Center’s press release. “MacDonald made over 500 edits to the final decision. At the time, she co-owned a farm in California that overlapped with habitat for the fish. The inspector general cited her for conflict of interest.”

To read the full text of this story from IndyBay.org, click here.

December 30, 2007 · Filed Under Wildlife & Endangered Species

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