FACT CHECK: Zinke Is Now Lying About His Lies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 30th, 2022

CONTACT
hadley@montanademocrats.org

During Western Debate Zinke Lies About Findings of his Ethics Investigations

Helena, MT – At Thursday night’s Western District candidate forum hosted by MTPR and Lee News, Montanans got to hear Ryan Zinke defend his track record of lies and scandals for the first time in nearly two months, after skipping the last 10 debates. Right off the bat, Ryan Zinke lied once more.

He attempted to defend himself about the 18 federal ethics investigations opened about his scandal-plagued tenure at the Department of the Interior. “You know what the report concluded? That I didn’t follow the employee handbook and had a lack of candor. I don’t know what that means.”

Here’s what that means, Ryan:

It means you’re lying again. The report concluded – decisively – that you lied to Trump’s investigators. And now you’re lying to Montana voters.

The report clearly said:

“We concluded that Secretary Zinke and the Chief of Staff did not comply with their duty of candor when they knowingly provided incorrect, incomplete, and misleading answers to OIG investigators in response to questions about their involvement in the decision to return the Tribes’ amendments without action.”

“We also concluded that Secretary Zinke knew the statements described above were inaccurate or incomplete when he made them.”

“Ryan lies to our law enforcement, acts like he is somehow above the law, and thinks he can get away with it,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “And now, when he finally shows up on the campaign trail, he lies straight to Montana voters' faces. Nobody can trust anything Ryan Zinke says. He’s only in this race for himself.”

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