The age-old question about Republican governance—“Stupid or Evil?”—has sharpened over the last couple years, as even some Republicans have struggled to find the answer. (What the hell? It’s easier than actually doing something about it.) Rarely, though, is there a question for which the answer is so clearly, “Both.” The Washington Post, however, has managed to find one of those in connection with Ryan Zinke, the Secretary of Interior and Scott Pruitt’s Scott Pruitt.

The thousands of pages of email correspondence chart how Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his aides instead tailored their survey of protected sites to emphasize the value of logging, ranching and energy development that would be unlocked if they were not designated national monuments. Comments the department’s Freedom of Information Act officers made in the documents show that they sought to keep some of the references out of the public eye because they were “revealing [the] strategy” behind the review.

It’s no surprise that this administration* is selling off the country’s natural patrimony for parts. But what makes this particular episode noteworthy is how we found out about it: the crackerjack staff at Interior told us.

These redactions came to light because Interior’s FOIA office sent documents to journalists and advocacy groups on July 16 that it later removed online. “It appears that we inadvertently posted an incorrect version of the files for the most recent National Monuments production,” officials wrote July 17. “We are requesting that if you downloaded the files already to please delete those versions.”

The Bears Ears national monument in Utah, shrunk by the Trump administration. Education Images Getty Images

Aaron Weiss, a spokesman for the advocacy group Center for Western Priorities, said in an email that the “botched document dump reveals what we’ve suspected all along: Secretary Zinke ignored clear warnings from his own staff that shrinking national monuments would put sacred archaeological and cultural sites at risk.”

Nothing but the best people! Never not going to be funny.

“Trying to hide those warnings from the public months later is disgraceful and possibly illegal,” Weiss added.

The revelations in the documents are bad enough on their own. The Interior Department is turning into a Sam’s Club for various industries.

The inadvertently released documents show that department officials dismissed some evidence that contradicted the administration’s push to revise national monument designations, which are made under the 1906 American Antiquities Act. Estimates of increased tourism revenue, analyses showing that existing restrictions had not hurt fishing operators and agency reports finding that less vandalism occurred as a result of monument designations were all set aside. On Sept. 11, 2017, Randal Bowman, the lead staff member for the review, suggested deleting language that said most fishing vessels near the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument “generated 5% or less of their annual landings from within the monument” because it “undercuts the case for the ban being harmful.”

Blowing the whistle on yourself is an acquired skill.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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