The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday on a convoluted set of land deals for which Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi is under investigation. The FBI has been investigating Renzi's campaign funding, which is all tangled up in his land dealings.
Renzi is the current sponsor of a bill that would trade 3,000 acres of public land to Resolution Copper--land that is currently protected under a 50-year-old Executive Order issued by President Eisenhower. Not to mention, uh, part of the Tonto National Forest.
Renzi tried to use sponsorship of the land swap bill to force Resolution Copper to buy a piece of land he owned and wanted to unload. That didn't work, so Renzi's partner in the land started doing business with former Interior Secretary/former Arizona Governor/land-dealer extraordinaire Bruce Babbitt to make the parcel part of a separate congressional swap Babbitt was working on. Then Renzi promised to grease the skids for Babbitt's swap!
The Phoenix New Times reported last year on the Babbitt deal and Renzi's questionable shuffling of funds to his congressional campaign. It's all quite convoluted--but that's how these guys manage to use our public land to pad their own pockets.
-Eskarne
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