Interior Department attorney resigns, alleges 'assault on rule of law'

Giacona departed BOEM for Halliburton in September

Murdock, who began working for the interior department’s legal office in 2002 and is a self-described conservative Christian, officially stepped down on September 30 after 18 years with the agency. His resignation letter was first sent to his supervisor earlier this year and obtained by the Guardian and Public Domain.

“We are headed in the wrong direction,” wrote Murdock, who officially stepped down on 30 September.

His departure comes amid an exodus of longtime government workers and scientists from federal agencies, including the interior department, which has lost thousands of employees since Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) began its efforts to slash government employment last year, according to the Guardian.

“Sadly, I am but one of many civil servants who have departed the government under less than ideal circumstances in recent years. If my story helps others or in some small way assists in preserving the rule of law, I am willing to share it,” Murdock said.

Murdock wrote that he grew especially concerned about the actions of a top official at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the interior department agency that oversees offshore oil and gas drilling. His decision to resign in protest stemmed in particular from a December incident, when Giacona, then BOEM’s acting director, appeared on stage at a gathering in New Orleans to announce the results of a Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale. Known as BBG1 and mandated by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Act, the sale received bids from 30 companies, including BP, Chevron and Shell, totaling more than $370 million.

During his speech, Giacona extolled the Trump administration’s pro-drilling agenda and claimed that the administration was “upholding the highest environmental standards.” In a memo published shortly before the sale, Giacona, in coordination with the interior department’s legal office, had determined that NEPA, a key provision of the ESA, and several other environmental safeguards “are not applicable at the lease sale stage of” BBG1 and similar sales.

When Murdock heard Giacona claim the administration was upholding the highest environmental standards, he decided he needed to resign. “I felt an ethical obligation to highlight the glaring legal flaws I saw,” he wrote.

Environmental groups quickly filed suit challenging the legality of the actions. “The Trump administration has no basis for exempting these massive drilling lease sales from the bedrock laws that Congress passed decades ago after destructive oil spills off our coasts,” George Torgun, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in a statement. “This illegal action is a payback to oil and gas drillers. Gulf communities – and the marine ecosystems that we all depend on – will pay the price.”

In a legal filing earlier this year, the administration argued that because the lease sale was mandated by Congress, the agency did not have “sufficient discretion to alter the scope or terms of the lease sale in ways that could affect environmental outcomes.”

An interior department spokesperson said in a statement that “one former employee’s personal disagreement with the Department’s policies does not transform lawful policy decisions into an ‘assault on the rule of law,’ nor does his inflammatory rhetoric make his opinion accurate. The Department stands firmly behind its work to implement President Trump’s agenda consistent with federal law.”

Among other policies Murdock protested was the Trump administration’s decision this year to exempt oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act. “Whether technically legal or not, it is a repugnant policy that I in no way support,” Murdock wrote. “That repugnancy is especially true with one of the most imperiled species of marine mammals, the Rice’s whale, calling the Gulf home.”

Murdock’s work at the interior department had included efforts “to help clean up a mess that BP had made” during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, he wrote. “I do not want to now be part of creating an even greater disaster,” he added.

He also condemned the administration’s continuing political attack on offshore wind energy. Under the Trump administration, Murdock wrote, an “all of the above” energy strategy has morphed into “one of the above,” solely focused on fossil fuels. He described the decisions to shutter nearly complete offshore wind projects and to pay Total Energies hundreds of millions of dollars to renounce wind leases as “an assault on logic and the American taxpayer,” referencing the administration’s announcement earlier this year that it would reimburse a French energy company nearly $1 billion to forgo plans to build wind farms off the U.S. east coast.

Murdock also denounced “the weekly propaganda video, Inside Interior, sent to every employee’s inbox.” A recent installment, he wrote, described “the fearless leadership of President Donald J. Trump, who reminds us everyday what true patriotism looks like as he works tirelessly to make America great again.” “Though some version of a self-congratulatory update has long existed, the change in tone to something approaching cultish worship has been jarring,” he wrote.

Giacona, meanwhile, left BOEM in September to join Halliburton, an oil services company. The Guardian and Public Domain sought comment from Giacona through Halliburton but did not receive a response before publication.

In his letter, Murdock, who now lives in Texas, acknowledged the personal cost of his decision. “I walk away from the stable salary and benefits of a government job and my retirement likely becomes less lucrative and more complicated,” he wrote. “Yet, I will gain much – including a deeper admiration for those who have made much greater sacrifices – and I will preserve my integrity.”

The article was co-published with Public Domain, an investigative newsroom covering public lands, the interior department and wildlife.