A government watchdog will reportedly investigate Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's alleged threat against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, to withhold department support from Alaska if she didn't back a GOP healthcare bill.
Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Frank Pallone, D-N.J., have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate conversations Zinke had with Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-AK, the Washington Examiner reported.
The Alaska Dispatch News last month reported that during a phone call, Zinke alluded to the fact that Murkowski's vote could have an impact on economic development work in the state.
Sullivan told the newspaper the call had a "troubling message."
"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," he told the Dispatch News.
The Interior Department's inspector general launched a similar probe into the allegations at the end of August, calling them "unproductive," Reuters reported.
Zinke had called the reports of the allegedly threatening call with Murkowski and Sullivan "laughable," the Examiner reported in late July.
Murkowski, along with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and John McCain, R-Ariz., voted with all Senate Democrats against the latest Obamacare repeal bill in late July, triggering a tweet from President Donald Trump that she'd "let the country down."
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