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“She knew she was under investigation in 1989 and again in 1993 when she agreed to the immunity deal with the government to avoid criminal prosecution for felony,” Merkley wrote in a letter. obtained by the committee and shared with POLITICO.
When asked if she had ever been the target of an investigation, arrested or charged with a crime in her official Senate Committee questionnaire earlier this year, Stone-Manning said “no”. Target designation is generally reserved for individuals for whom an investigation finds substantial evidence of their commission of a crime.
Stone-Manning’s awareness that investigators suspected she had knowledge of tree planting, a practice advocated by some fringe environmental groups in which metal or other materials are inserted into trees intended for the logging, was first reported in E&E News in June, citing a retired law enforcement officer. But Merkley’s letter to senators, appending his name, includes new and potentially contentious details about the candidate’s actions during the investigation.
During the 1989 investigation, Merkley wrote: “It was extremely difficult to work with Ms. Stone-Manning; in fact, she was the meanest suspect. She was vulgar, hostile and extremely anti-government.
The Home Office did not respond to specific questions regarding Merkley’s letter about Stone-Manning, who went on to serve as chief of staff to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and assistant to Senator Jon Tester ( D-Mont.). Instead of. a department spokesperson released Stone-Manning’s answers to more than three dozen pages of supplemental questions for his confirmation hearing record.
In responses to written questions Energy panel’s top Republican, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, Stone-Manning said that “I do not tolerate tree spreading or terrorism of any kind” and “I have had no involvement in spreading trees ”.
Barrasso said the new letter from the retired investigator provided even more reason for Biden to withdraw his selection.
“This new information confirms that Tracy Stone-Manning lied to the committee saying that she was never the target of an investigation,” he said in a statement. “President Biden must withdraw his appointment and if he does not, the Senate must reject it.”
The White House supports the nomination, a spokesperson said.
“Tracy Stone-Manning is a dedicated public servant who has years of experience and a proven track record in finding solutions and common ground with respect to our public lands and waters,” the spokesperson said in a statement. communicated. “She is exceptionally qualified to be the next director of the Bureau of Land Management.
The development comes as Republican opposition to the candidate for the head of the BLM, which oversees the country’s public lands, reaches a climax. All Republicans on the energy committee called on Biden to withdraw his appointment on Wednesday. Messages against the choice reached GOP leadership, with the Senate Republican Communications Center blowing up Stone-Manning in a statement Tuesday.
The committee is split evenly among the parties, which means his appointment could end up in a stalemate if put to a vote. If that happens, Democratic Senate leadership can extract Stone-Manning and confirm it to the prosecution by forcing a vote from the entire chamber, which is split 50-50.
Energy Chairman Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) has yet to reveal how he will vote on the pick, but on Tuesday he called Stone-Manning a “good fit” based on what he had. heard so far. Manchin expressed the wish to schedule a vote in committee “as soon as possible”. His office did not comment on the last letter.
Stone-Manning wrote in her previous questionnaire that she had testified as part of an investigation into the incident.
George Breitsameter, a former federal prosecutor who represented the government in the tree bloom case, said Stone-Manning had not been the target of the investigation by the time the case reached the courtroom. ‘hearing.
“Obviously, she was not a target when she testified at the trial,” Breitsameter said in an email. “Investigations evolve on the basis of the evidence developed – initially by investigators and later sometimes with the help of a prosecutor.”
Senate Democrats overwhelmingly rallied behind the nomination, the opposition to which they attribute Stone-Manning’s involvement in Democratic Montana politics.
In the 1989 case, two men Stone-Manning ultimately testified against were convicted of inserting spikes into trees to prevent them from being cut down by loggers. When testifying in 2013 for her appointment as head of Montana’s Environmental Quality Department, Stone-Manning said she re-typed a letter from one of the men warning that the trees had been spiked and sent anonymously to the US Forest Service to warn of the danger.
In response to a question for the record whether she had “personal knowledge” of, participated in, or in any way, directly or indirectly, activities associated with the seeding of trees in a forest during in her life, she answered “No”, according to the questionnaire. Stone-Manning added in her responses that she had requested immunity for her testimony on the advice of her lawyer at the time.
Stone-Manning said she believed sending the letter would alert authorities to tree planting activities to prevent anyone from being injured.
“I was worried that if I didn’t send the letter, he wouldn’t, and I wanted to make sure someone was informed so that no one was hurt,” she wrote. “I remember being upset by the whole situation and afraid to [one of the men]; I didn’t want anything to do with it and I didn’t want anyone to be hurt.
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