Bush's Top Forestry Official Facing Contempt Charges - Jail

By Logan Murphy — August 21, 2007

As if it wasn't bad enough for the Bush Administration already, contempt charges are flying in Montana.The Administration's top forestry official has been ordered to explain why the US Forest Service failed to analyze the environmental impact of dropping a fish-killing flame retardant on wildfires -- or face contempt of court.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey would then face jail unless the Forest Service assented to a court order enjoining the environmental review.

"Noting that Rey had blocked implementation of an earlier review, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy ordered Rey to appear in his court Oct. 15 unless the Forest Service completes the analysis before that time," Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard wrote.

Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh told AP the agency was working on the analysis, but couldn't say if the Secretary would meet the deadline; Rey did not respond to requests for comment. Read more...

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.