Interior's Solicitor's Office falsely denied holding Karen Budd-Falen ethics records, then released redacted files after press inquiry

On Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, Interior Department ethics officials released 91 heavily redacted pages of ethics disclosure records for senior appointee Karen Budd-Falen to the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation watchdog group -- but only hours after first telling the group's researcher, in writing, that "after a thorough search of our files, the Office of the Solicitor did not locate records responsive to your request." The FOIA officer's written denial covered two separate requests seeking Budd-Falen's ethics recusals from both her first and second Trump-administration tenures. When a reporter asked Interior's press office about the apparent lack of any such paperwork, an agency spokesperson called the "no records" response incorrect and said the department was "getting to the bottom of why a Dept employee gave you false information." Hours later, the Center for Western Priorities received the documents; a FOIA officer told the group's researcher the earlier letters stating there were no responsive records "were erroneous and, upon further review, we have located records that are responsive to both requests."

The documents Interior ultimately released did not include an updated ethics recusal covering Budd-Falen's current tenure, only boilerplate guidance material and a "draft," blacked-out list of her former legal clients -- even though her own financial disclosure lists a dozen legal clients she represented in the year before rejoining government. The release also redacted every entity on Budd-Falen's recusal list from her first Trump administration term, citing the "substantial privacy interest" of the individuals named. Interior's ethics office had separately failed to include Budd-Falen's financial disclosure in response to an earlier records request, which the agency called an "inadvertent oversight."

The document fight is distinct from, and predates, a separate financial-conflict matter already documented in this archive (see federal-self-dealing-0cd9cdee): Budd-Falen's husband sold water rights from the family's Home Ranch to Lithium Nevada Corp., developer of the Thacker Pass lithium mine, in December 2018, weeks after Budd-Falen received a partial ethics waiver -- a sale Budd-Falen never disclosed on her annual financial forms. Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, said the redacted, initially-denied release meant Interior's Inspector General "needs to launch an urgent investigation into Karen Budd-Falen and Interior ethics officials."