Uh Oh, Biden BLM Nominee Facing Serious Ethics Questions

Tracy Stone-Manning is a longtime environmental activist and Democrat party operative. She started with EarthFirst back in the 1990s and is tied to virtually every out of state funded, dark money environmental outfit in Montana. She's also President Biden's nominee to head up the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Her controversial nomination is now facing serious ethics questions which could very likely sink her BLM nomination.

While it may have largely been ignored by the media in Montana, Stone-Manning is facing serious questions from national news outlets about a personal loan she received while serving as Democrat Senator Jon Tester's (D-MT) state director.

According to The Washington Times, "Ms. Stone-Manning was quizzed about a personal loan of between $50,000 and $100,000 that she obtained from a friend in 2008 at 6% interest, about half the market rate at the time."

At the hearing, Stone-Manning claimed the loan came from a "friend," who also happens to be a very wealthy Democrat donor from Missoula, and who also got some benefits from state government while Tracy Stone-Manning held senior positions.

She did not offer the name of the friend, but information from her ethics disclosure shared with The Washington Times showed that the lender was Stuart Goldberg.

The Hill, a prominent news publication covering Capitol Hill, also covered the ethics questions facing her nomination.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) also hammered Stone-Manning for her continued opposition to public access and multiple use on public lands:

The Bureau of Land Management needs a director who believes in, and is committed to, upholding the agency’s multiple-use mandate. Based on her record, I am concerned that Ms. Stone-Manning does not fit the bill. Her career has been defined by her support for policies that restrict multiple-use activities on public lands. 

So, just who is this Stuart Goldberg who donated the personal loan to Stone-Manning? More to follow. The bottom line: it reeks of political corruption.

You know what else reeks of corruption? Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) has benefitted heavily from political campaign spending that came from almost every one of the environmental groups that Tracy Stone-Manning has held leadership positions in, and here he is rewarding his campaign contributors and staffers with top jobs in the federal government.