All hated....

Jeanine Pirro berated Doug Burgum. But Interior staffers have been angry at him for months.

The broadsides from D.C.'s top prosecutor against the Interior secretary echoed what agency staffers have said privately.

By Daniel Lippman, Ian M. Stevenson and Ben Lefebvre

Interior Department staffers were optimistic after Doug Burgum was confirmed to lead the agency in 2025, believing he had strong executive experience as governor of energy-rich North Dakota who led successful tech startups and businesses.

But since he took over at Interior last year, that hope has been replaced by confusion and concern that the agency is poorly run, has devolved into secrecy and has lost thousands of the staff needed to manage the national park systems and millions of acres of public lands.

Some staffers were alarmed that some employees were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to two former staffers. Former employees accuse Burgum of surrounding himself with a toxic leadership team, leading to staffers fleeing. Since Burgum came in, several top officials have left the agency — including the Senate-confirmed legal counsel, the secretary’s former chief of staff and Interior’s top energy official.

Tony Irish, who worked at Interior for more than 20 years, including as associate solicitor for general law until he left last year, said it is “abundantly clear” that Burgum does not solicit or value the opinions of career staffers.

“Burgum appears to combine arrogance with an utter lack of curiosity or humility to seek out the advice of people who have dedicated their professional careers to [Interior’s] objectives,” Irish said. “I think it shows his disdain for the rank and file.”

And officials at Interior decry what they view as a culture of secrecy. Burgum asked colleagues early on about trying to add a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, on the department’s sixth floor even though one exists just three floors below, according to a person who heard the comment. According to three staffers who witnessed it, officials have routinely shredded official documents and use disappearing Signal messages — even for mundane scheduling matters — to avoid communications being preserved, as is required by the Federal Records Act.

“They’re terrified of written records,” said one former official.

These complaints come as Burgum entered into bureaucratic infighting with Washington’s top prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro, over how Interior handled accusations of vandalism in connection with criminal charges centered on renovations to the Reflecting Pool. Pirro, according to The New York Times, laced into Burgum and alleged Interior misrepresented how the pool’s lining was damaged.

The disclosures also show the dysfunction in a department that many thought would thrive under the leadership of a man who gained fame as a software mogul and governor of North Dakota. While Burgum was often a cheerleader for U.S. energy dominance, he soon took charge of the administration’s actions to stall renewable energy projects at the behest of President Donald Trump.

Eight former Interior officials and five industry lobbyists spoke to POLITICO for this story, and many were granted anonymity because they feared retribution for speaking out against Burgum and other senior staffers.

In a statement, Interior spokesperson Katie Martin said that Burgum has led a “high performing team” with “gratitude, humility, curiosity and courage.”

“These anonymous and false attacks have been proven to be Fake News by the record of success at the Department,” she said, referencing Interior’s expansion of oil and gas leasing and high visitation numbers at national parks. “The only culture of paranoid secrecy is inside the heads of those stricken with TDS.” TDS stands for “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” She also denied that Burgum ever asked for an additional SCIF.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “has tremendous respect” for Burgum, and he is “one of the most valuable members of his cabinet.”

“The president is deeply grateful for the secretary’s incredible work to make our country beautiful again and unleash American energy dominance,” she added.

Burgum took the position at Interior almost as a consolation prize, said people familiar with the discussions about his joining the administration. The former North Dakota governor originally set his sights on a nomination as secretary of State, or, failing that, the Commerce Department or White House chief of staff. He agreed to helm Interior only after Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council and placed Burgum as its chair.

But once atop Interior, Burgum staunchly supported Trump’s policies, including shrinking the department’s workforce. Starting with the Elon Musk-led government efficiency sprint last year and continuing through a round of buyouts and early retirements this spring, Interior’s workforce has shrunk by close to 14 percent, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. Officials have been largely mum about these staffing changes and its leadership, saying that the department does not comment on personnel.

Beyond the rank and file personnel, those who left include top lawyer William Doffermyre; chief of staff Wynn Radford; congressional affairs director Matt Schafle; deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management Jake Tyner; Leslie Beyer — who exited only months after being confirmed as assistant secretary for land and minerals management — and senior counselor Adam Suess. Tyler Hassen, who led the reorganization of Interior under DOGE, also left.

When asked why they left, Doffermyre and Suess didn’t respond to requests for comment. Radford and Beyer also declined to comment. Hassen said in a statement: “I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked for and learned from an outstanding leader like Doug Burgum.”

In a statement, Schafle called it “the privilege of a lifetime” working for Burgum. “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to work alongside the dedicated team at the Department of the Interior.” In an email, Tyner said he “thoroughly enjoyed” working for Burgum.

Three former Interior officials blame Burgum’s chief of staff, JoDee Hanson, at least partly for their decisions to leave. Hanson has worked with Burgum since the late 1990s, including at his former company Great Plains Software. She has caused subordinates to cry due to her rough style, according to three of the former officials familiar with the matter, and one who was told of the incidents.

“The way that she managed the politicals in that building contributed to me leaving,” said one of the people.

Hanson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Martin said Hanson “exudes professionalism and class” and that allegations of “improper behavior” are false.

Hanson drew attention early on in the administration when The Atlantic reported that she demanded that appointees use the agency’s industrial ovens to make chocolate chip cookies for Burgum and visitors. The Atlantic cited unnamed Interior officials saying that the cookies were a gesture of hospitality for guests to the agency.

In recent days, Burgum has been at the center of a fight within the administration over the botched repairs to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which Interior granted to a Virginia company with a no-bid contract that ballooned millions of dollars over budget in the rush to apply lining to the pool before this summer’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

After bringing charges against a former Olympian and others for allegedly vandalizing the reflecting pool, Pirro abruptly reversed course last week and sought to dismiss the charges against several defendants, saying in a court filing that federal prosecutors had been misled by uncooperative Interior officials who withheld key details that indicated damage to the liner was caused by blunders made during the installation.

Interior officials failed to accurately provide timely evidence of the vandalism, despite “dozens and dozens” of inquiries from federal prosecutors, according to Pirro’s DOJ filing. And when they did, it showed the cause of damage was shoddy work rather than deliberate destruction.

“Had [Interior] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” Pirro wrote.

Pirro’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Burgum has so far stood by the vandalism explanation, while Pirro on Monday accused the secretary of shirking responsibility by covering up the botched repairs during an hourlong Oval Office meeting with Trump, according to The New York Times.

Karen Budd-Falen, a high-ranking ranking department official, has also drawn scrutiny. Budd-Falen worked at Interior in the first Trump administration, when her husband secured a $3.5 million water rights deal in Nevada between her husband’s ranch and a lithium mining company that had federal approvals pending before Interior. She never disclosed that profit and since early 2025 has been working on a range of grazing and other land management policies despite owning at least five ranching operations on lands in Wyoming and Nevada that are each valued at more than $1 million and holding BLM permits.

In March, she received a partial ethics waiver to work on grazing policy of “general applicability.”

Interior under Burgum never publicly announced that Budd-Falen had rejoined the department in 2025. She disclosed her hiring in an interview with a Wyoming media outlet, something that the Interior Department at the time declined to confirm with POLITICO saying only “The Department doesn’t have comment on personnel.”

Budd-Falen did not respond to a request for comment. An Interior spokesperson previously said she “has complied, and continues to comply, with any and all legal requirements, ethical standards and ethics guidelines.”

Staffers have also condemned what they say is a push for secrecy under Burgum’s leadership. Burgum used a private email for some Interior-related business early on as secretary, according to two former Interior officials familiar with the matter.

Martin said there is “zero truth” to Burgum using a personal email account for government business and that the department “follows all federal records management obligations.”

A shift toward more secrecy began early in Trump’s second term, when “identifiable pods of appointees,” as one former Interior official called them, would disappear for hours during the workday to hold meetings in the third-floor SCIF.

And in early May, a Virginia company that specializes in secure office technology called Bridges System Integration received a $215,000 contract for a “SCIF AV UPGRADE,” according to federal contract records, which Martin said is for the existing SCIF. In an email, Bridges System Integration declined to comment.

Martin said that Burgum’s position as chair of the National Energy Dominance Council gives him a position on the National Security Council, a high-level group that often discusses sensitive intelligence matters.

“They just thought everything should be completely private,” the former official said. “So many of them just don’t understand what public service means.”