Douglas Domenech

Douglas William Domenech (born August 5, 1955) is an American government official who served as the Assistant United States Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021. Investigators also said that Domenech had used his office to promote another family member's business.

From 2010 to 2014, Domenech served as Governor Bob McDonnell's Secretary of Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia, making him the first Hispanic and Puerto Rican person to be appointed to McDonnell's cabinet. Domenech previously worked for the Forest Resources Association.

From March 2015, Domenech was director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Fueling Freedom Project, which was a project to fight the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan.

Ethics violation investigation On April 23, 2019, The Washington Post reported that Domenech was one of six officials being investigated for ethics violations by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General. Domenech was one of six political appointees of the Trump administration at the Interior Department under investigation for having "violated federal ethics rules by engaging with their former employers or clients on department-related business." In 2017 Trump had signed an executive order requiring appointees to recuse themselves for two years on any matters involving their former employers and clients. According to his calendar, on April 6, 2017, Domenech had two meetings with his former employer, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, while the think tank was also a party to lawsuits against the Interior Department. Six months later, one of the lawsuits was settled by the government. Domenech's ethics violation was first uncovered by The Guardian newspaper and later confirmed by the Interior Department's Inspector General.