Latest news with #EricKriley
E&E News
28-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
BLM removes top career official
The top career official at the Bureau of Land Management was removed Tuesday from the Interior Department headquarters and placed on administrative leave, according to three people familiar with the situation granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mike Nedd, the deputy director of administration and programs responsible for overseeing BLM's 9,000 employees and the bureau's day-to-day operations, declined to comment on his removal. BLM also declined to comment. The Washington Post and POLITICO also reported on Nedd's removal. Advertisement Nedd's placement on administrative leave comes days after POLITICO reported that the deputy director had instructed BLM staffers to ignore an internal memorandum placing a freeze on employee reassignments or changes to work locations as part of Interior's ongoing efforts to determine what positions and staff could be cut in layoffs. That internal memo was issued by Stephanie Holmes — Interior's acting chief human capital officer and a former member of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. An Interior spokesperson last week said Nedd had not told BLM employees to disregard Holmes' memo. Nedd was named to the top career position at the bureau in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Earlier this month, an administrative law judge also overturned Nedd's 2021 decision to remove Eric Kriley from his post as BLM's former top cop. Kriley had accused Nedd of trying to improperly exert influence over internal investigations. The decision by Administrative Judge Evan Roth with the Merit Systems Protection Board retroactively put Kirley back in his position as director of BLM's Office of Law Enforcement and Security. Roth's decision concluded that Kriley qualifies for federal whistleblower protections and that Nedd — a former Army special operations officer with nearly 40 years of federal service — gave conflicting statements about when he decided to remove Kriley from his post during a deposition and a later hearing before the judge. Reporter Robin Bravender contributed to this story. Scott Streater can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
E&E News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Judge orders BLM's former top cop reinstated 3 years after dismissal
An administrative judge sided with the Bureau of Land Management's former top law enforcement official in a yearslong legal battle over his dismissal amid assertions he was being punished for complaints about a top BLM official. Administrative Judge Evan Roth with the Merit Systems Protection Board issued a decision Friday that Eric Kriley, the former director of BLM's Office of Law Enforcement and Security, should be reinstated to the post he was abruptly removed from in October 2021. Kriley, who was initially hired as OLES director in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term, had accused a senior bureau official of trying to improperly exert influence over internal investigations. Advertisement Roth gave BLM 60 days from the date his May 9 order becomes final — set for June 13 — to 'cancel' Kriley's October 2021 removal and 'retroactively restore him as Director of the Office of Law Enforcement and Security.'
