department officials to loosen restrictions. records reviewed by cnn show bernhardt involved in three meetings with interior officials on the issue, ipaa and other groups thanked bernhardt for his involvement and by december of 2018, the trump administration released a plan to amend sage grous protections and open vast swaths of western land for oil drilling. the industry requests and actions taken go on and on, fracking, offshore drilling, easing of safety requirements, former clients asking and receiving favorable decisions from the government agency run by the former oil lobbyist. we re talking about the literal fox guarding the hen house. this administration doesn t seem to mind the notion that a lobbyist is not going to regulate the very industry that they used to work for. reporter: bernhardt spokesman said the acting secretary is fully in compliance with his recusal agreements and critics
who say he is granting favors are categorically incorrect, either misunderstand the law, regulations and the acting secretary s ethics pledge or they are deliberately misleading. the competitive enterprise institution defends the acting secretary s actions this way. dave bernhardt is not pursuing his agenda or that of any people he worked for as a lawyer. he s pursuing the agenda that president trump won the election on and is implementing. reporter: but the acting secretary isn t so eager to talk about any of that. i m happy to visit with you at any time. right now s not the time. go ahead and talk to my press folks. we ll set something up. reporter: just to be clear, your press folks have told us you re inaccessible for the next several weeks they haven t talked to me so i ll talk to them. we have a flight to catch, sir. reporter: within minutes of this conversation, bernhardt s staff in washington was sending an email to cnn confirming there
promising in this ethics letter not to be involved, to recuse himself from any decision involving 26 different groups mostly in oil and gas that he has lobbied for but only for a certain amount of time. curiously, 13 of his former clients have gotten what they wanted from the department of interior since bernhardt s been there and one name keeps popping up again and again, the independent petroleum association of america or ipaa, one of the group s requests, do something about the sage rouse. it s sparked the largest land conservation in u.s. history. reporter: in 2015, the obama administration implemented a protection plan for the bird which meant lots of federal lands across the west would be either off-limits or more difficult for oil and gas exploration. the ipaa, bernhardt s former client repeatedly lob yid