Too late to do anyone much good, a newly released report from the Interior Department's inspector general concludes that yes, Donald Trump-appointed ex-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke did indeed violate federal ethics rules, using his government-provided office to engage in real estate development talks that would enrich himself and his family. Zinke also lied to a government official who asked him about the deals—fairly conclusive proof Zinke knew full well that he was violating the rules but instead acted to cover it up.
To answer the most pressing question, not a damn thing will be done about this. Justice Department prosecutors have declined to press criminal charges, a decision that seems based on Zinke's misconduct being limited to using to using his office and staff to pursue the business deal while not participating "in any official matters" as secretary of the Interior that would goose the project along.
As reported by The Washington Post, subpoenas to the developers Zinke met with showed that Zinke communicated with those developers 64 times, even meeting with them inside his Interior Department office before giving them a tour of the Lincoln Memorial. He also ordered Interior Department staff to do tasks related to those meetings.
All of this was after Zinke had claimed to have properly distanced himself from the family foundation that would benefit from the proposed development, as he was required to do by federal ethics rules. Nope, he just lied about it. The report also notes that Interior Department officials in some instances refused to cooperate with their probe.
Zinke was forced to resign from his position in 2018 after the matter was first referred to the Justice Department for review—and after a brief tenure that was, as was typical during Trump's years, pockmarked with other charges of ethics violations, self-dealing, and willful sabotage of the department put under his control. Because the Republican Party and its base are now openly boastful about being able to get away with crooked behavior, Zinke's now running for a new House seat in Montana. He's got Trump's support because, again, getting caught doing crooked things is among the best ways to earn the party's love.
If the Republican Party were not one in which the party's leader is promising presidential pardons for those who assisted an attempted coup and one that repeatedly, both during Trump's tenure and after it, worked to impede or erase investigations into even impeachable conduct while launching histrionic and dangerous attacks against whatever government officials or journalists discovered the wrongdoing, then being accused of blatant crookedness and lying to a government investigator would doom Zinke's chances at returning as a House Republican in the next elections.
But the Republican Party is that crooked, and revels in being that crooked, and Donald Trump and staff were relentless in purging anyone from the Republican ranks who spoke out against crookedness or seemed like they might. So Montana Republicans are probably quite eager to be represented by someone who's already proven to be a liar and a cheat. Zinke might even make it a slogan and put it on a hat.