Justice Department investigating former Interior Secretary Gail Norton

The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that later hired her, according to officials in federal law enforcement and the Interior Department. The criminal investigation centers on the Interior Department's 2006 decision to award a Shell subsidiary three lucrative oil-shale leases on federal land in Colorado. Over the years it would take to extract the oil, according to calculations from Shell and a Rand Corp. expert, the deal could net the company hundreds of billion of dollars. The probe's main focus is whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said. They said investigators also are trying to determine if Norton broke a broader federal "denial of honest services" law, which says a government official can be prosecuted for violating the public trust by, for example, steering government business to favored firms or friends. The Interior Department's Inspector General's office launched the investigation during the waning months of the George W. Bush administration and more recently made a formal criminal referral to Justice. Norton is the first Bush official at the cabinet secretary level to be the subject of a formal political corruption investigation...WTKR-TV