Thermopolis rancher seeks probe of BLM office

The lawyer for a Thermopolis rancher is asking federal inspectors to investigate the Bureau of Land Management office in Worland for misuse of public funds, trespass, blackmail, perjury and other allegations.
The BLM office and Frank Robbins have been in a dispute for years over a number of issues, including trespass and other charges against Robbins and accusations that the BLM has unfairly - and sometimes criminally - made a target of Robbins.
"The Worland BLM has continually harassed Frank Robbins while Robbins conducted his lawful operations on both BLM and his private land," Karen Budd-Falen, Robbins' attorney, said in a nine-page letter this week to the inspector general's office at the Department of Interior.
Earlier this year, Robbins and the BLM signed an unusual and controversial agreement allowing Robbins to continue grazing operations on BLM land. In exchange, both parties agreed to put on hold the charges against one another.
The inspector general's office is already investigating the agreement, as is the staff of Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary for the Interior Department, who oversees the BLM and other agencies.
But the letter from Budd-Falen asks inspectors to look at several particular accusations against the BLM office in Worland involving "illegal and unethical actions" and certain employees who "clearly have violated federal law and regulation."...