The Bureau of Land Management has reinstated its former top law enforcement officer, complying with a judge’s May order that determined he should not have been removed from the post more than three years ago.
Eric Kriley’s reinstatement as director of BLM’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security concludes one of the most divisive leadership shake-ups at the bureau in recent years. It also formally ends a legal battle that began when Kriley was escorted by security personnel out of the bureau’s headquarters in October 2021 and forced to surrender his badge and weapon.
Kriley challenged his removal, leading to the ruling in May from Administrative Judge Evan Roth with the Merit Systems Protection Board that he qualified for federal whistleblower protections. Roth found Kriley’s ouster primarily stemmed from alerting senior bureau officials that his immediate supervisor was trying to improperly exert influence over internal investigations.
Kriley — initially hired as OLES director in 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term — was reinstated Tuesday, according to his attorney, Katherine Atkinson, and two Interior Department officials who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
