davis, lannie ESQ
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</div><div>unrelated?</div><div>
</div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva and committee member Rep. Katie Porter are investigating an alleged bribery scheme in which they believe a real estate developer donated to a super PAC aligned in support of former President Donald Trump in exchange for pardons for two other men.</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The two Democrats <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2022.12.02%20Grijalva%20Porter%20to%20Haaland%20re%20Hammond%20pardon%20REDACTED.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote </a>to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday, calling on her department to release all documents related to the pardons of Dwight and Steven Hammond, who had been convicted in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2012 of s<b>etting fires on public lands they had leased after illegally killing deer on the land. </b>The two men were sentenced to five years in prison with time served in 2015, sparking right-wing protests including a 40-day armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.</span></font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grijalva (Ariz.) and Porter (Calif.) believe real estate developer Mike Ingram—who was the subject of the Natural Resources Committee's first-ever criminal referral regarding another potential bribery case involving a clean water permit for one of his developments—secured the Hammonds' pardons in 2018 with a $10,000 donation to the America First Action, Inc. Super PAC.</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the letter, Ingram's assistant <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/chair-grijalva-rep-porter-seek-documents-on-another-incident-of-potential-bribery-under-the-trump-administration-" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">emailed</a> a Trump Interior Department official on May 25, 2018, attaching two articles arguing for the Hammonds to be pardoned. On July 1, a Republican lawmaker who supported the Hammonds tweeted that Trump was "seriously considering" pardoning them.</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One day later, Ingram made his donation, and just over a week after that Trump announced he was pardoning the Hammonds.</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Mr. Ingram made only one other $10,000 donation during the 2017-2018 nonpresidential election cycle," wrote Grijalva and Porter. "That donation was the subject of the committee's criminal referral regarding the Villages at Vigneto development [in Arizona]. In that case, <b>Ingram and 12 other individuals, many of whom maintained personal or professional relationships with Ingram, donated nearly a quarter of a million dollars</b> to the <b>Trump Victory Fund and the Republican National Committee </b>on the same day or within just a few days that a major federal action regarding Vigneto was made in Ingram's favor."</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The parallels between the Vigneto case and the Hammonds' pardons raise significant concerns about another potential case of bribery under the Trump administration and warrant further investigation," they added.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On social media, Porter noted that she and Grijalva uncovered the evidence of Ingram's alleged bribe "while investigating a possible $240,000 quid pro quo scheme between the Trump administration and a developer.</b>"</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're requesting documents to help us get to the bottom of [the Ingram case]," Porter <a href="https://twitter.com/RepKatiePorter/status/1598779740135034913" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>. "I have zero tolerance for corruption."</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div>