Security officers escorted a senior Bureau of Land Management official out of the agency’s headquarters after he told colleagues to ignore instructions from a DOGE appointee, according to reports.
Michael Nedd, the agency’s deputy director for administration and programs who had spent almost 30 years in the department, was removed from the offices on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
His removal came after he reportedly urged colleagues to ignore instructions included in a memo from Stephanie Holmes, a former staffer in Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency who is now the acting chief human capital officer at the Interior Department, the BLM’s parent agency.
Holmes’ memo, sent on May 2, instructed staff to stop doing “detail” work—covering in roles left vacant by departing workers—and return to their original jobs, according to Politico. Sources told the outlet that Nedd instructed staff “to ignore the email from HR” because “the work is too important and these people in detail are doing the work of the Administration.”
The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres of federal land and is therefore crucial to President Trump’s goal to ramp up fossil fuel production, declined to comment, saying it doesn’t comment on personnel matters. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast—a spokesperson for the department previously told Politico that Nedd didn’t tell others to ignore the memo.
The reported rebellion is the latest setback for the BLM, which is still without a director after Trump’s nominee Kathleen Sgamma—a veteran advocate for the oil and gas industries—suddenly withdrew from consideration last month. Her nomination rapidly unraveled after a letter from 2021 surfaced in which she was critical of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to watchdog journalist project Documented, Sgamma sent a memo to the Western Energy Alliance, which she heads, a day after the attack sharing her disgust over the event.
“I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it,” she wrote.
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