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Washington D.C. – Last month, a top official at Donald Trump’s Department of Justice issued an opinion to reinterpret public lands law to allow the President to remove national monuments. The expansion of executive power could lead to once-protected public lands being auctioned off to the highest bidder, as the Trump Administration eyes scaling back at least 6 monuments. 

A new Accountable.US research investigation released today has uncovered that Lanora Pettit, who leads DOJ’s Office Of Legal Counsel and issued the opinion reinterpreting the 1906 Antiquities Act following Trump’s call for review, holds close ties to the far-right Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn whose right wing group is already suing to protest national monuments.

“Trump appointee Lanora Pettit holds alarmingly cozy ties to big oil mega donor Tim Dunn – so it’s no surprise she gave a helping hand to the Oil and Gas industry, while dangerously jeopardizing Americans’ access to preserved land,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “Once again, Trump and his Administration are letting big oil donors write their own rules, and plotting to cut off Americans’ access to public lands in order to sell them to the highest bidder. Just as Project 2025 planned it.” 

Here are the facts: 

  • Prior to joining the Administration, Lanora Pettit served as a top deputy to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, working in his office for six years, most recently as Deputy Solicitor General. Under Paxton, she argued dozens of cases on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General, including three in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
  • Christian nationalist oil billionaire Tim Dunn, who has been called the “most powerful figure” in Texas politics, holds a close relationship with Paxton, cultivating his political career in the 2000s to eventually funnel millions of dollars to help Paxton reach an acquittal in his impeachment case. 
  • In her recent decision, former Paxton deputy Pettit said that the White House requested she reexamine the Antiquities Act statute to determine whether the Trump Administration can roll back Biden’s proclamations creating the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands national monuments in California. It comes as in the previous month, Dunn’s Texas Public Policy Foundation filed a lawsuit seeking to undo the creation of the Chuckwalla National Monument, and with the broader goal of even setting up a “Supreme Court showdown over the Antiquities Act.” What’s more, Pettit appears to be a close friend of TPPF Director of Litigation according to social media posts. 

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