A Montana-based watchdog group is suing the U.S. Interior Department to accelerate its request for records connected to reported threats to Alaska's U.S. senators from a top Trump administration official.
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The Western Values Project filed a complaint in Washington, D.C., federal court Thursday, after it said the Interior Department failed to fulfill its Freedom of Information Act request within a 20-day legal deadline.
Western Values Project is asking the department for records and correspondence related to calls Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made to Alaska's two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, amid the health care debate in July.
Zinke reportedly warned the senators that Murkowski's vote against a Republican health care proposal could hurt federal energy and land use policy in Alaska.
An internal Interior investigator, the inspector general, said on Tuesday it had dropped a probe into the calls after Murkowski and Sullivan declined to cooperate.