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“ A conservative Christian lawyer who spent 18 years at the Interior Department resigned in protest, warning of “a deeply troubling assault on the rule of law” under Trump. In a resignation letter obtained by the Guardian, John Murdock cited “glaring legal flaws” he witnessed, including the administration’s decision to exempt a massive Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale from key environmental laws. He decided to quit after the acting head of the offshore drilling agency claimed the administration was “upholding the highest environmental standards,” then later left the government to work for Halliburton. Murdock also slammed the decision to exempt Gulf drilling from the Endangered Species Act, the push to pay a French energy company nearly $1 billion to abandon wind leases, and a weekly internal video he said had turned into “something approaching cultish worship” of Trump. Murdock, who once helped clean up BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill, wrote that he did not want to be part of “creating an even greater disaster.” The Interior Department dismissed his concerns as “one former employee’s personal disagreement.” via Aaron Parnas newsletter