Trump Officials Used Secret Twitter Account To Rip Enemies (And Make Fart Jokes?)

Top officials at Donald Trump s Interior Department were directly involved in a short-lived campaign to blast agency critics from an unclaimed troll Twitter account, according to internal documents HuffPost obtained.

The Twitter handle @NoBullBison quietly appeared in April 2019 and began taking swings at the administrations critics. Bison bringing the facts - calling out the bull, read the profiles bio, a reference to the federal agencys bison seal.

In its first post from the profile, the Interior Department lashed out at the left-leaning Center for American Progress over a report the group produced that found that one-quarter of all new oil and gas leases approved by the department were within migration corridors for big game species like elk and mule deer habitats that the Trump administration had vowed to identify and better protect.

Documents that HuffPost obtained last week through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Daniel Jorjani, the agencys top lawyer, and Todd Willens, then the acting chief of staff for then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, were among those involved in crafting the initial rebuttal of CAPs report.

Willens forwarded CAPs report without comment to two colleagues on April 18, 2019. Casey Stemler, a senior adviser at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responded later that morning, writing that hed become sick and tired of various people and groups claiming the Order does this or that or it will lead to this or that, referring to a secretarial order that Bernhardts predecessor, Ryan Zinke, signed in 2018.

It would be great if we had a communication effort to [sic] so I can lay out the facts, Stemler added.

Willens forwarded Stemlers lengthy response to Interior Department communications staff, directing them to get on this and put out truth.

got some #FOIA docs back on the creation of this Trump-era DOI account...

among other things, they show the account's creator getting approval from Interior's then-top lawyer, Daniel Jorjani, to take a swing at @amprog

\"I am going to let it rip from the Bison account\" https://t.co/SIIvFROPXX pic.twitter.com/HKLSHxwF0M

Chris D'Angelo (@c_m_dangelo) September 14, 2021","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Chris D'Angelo","author_url":"https://twitter.com/c_m_dangelo","cache_age":86400,"description":"got some #FOIA docs back on the creation of this Trump-era DOI account...among other things, they show the account's creator getting approval from Interior's then-top lawyer, Daniel Jorjani, to take a swing at @amprog \"I am going to let it rip from the Bison account\" https://t.co/SIIvFROPXX pic.twitter.com/HKLSHxwF0M Chris D'Angelo (@c_m_dangelo) September 14, 2021\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Chris D'Angelo on 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got some #FOIA docs back on the creation of this Trump-era DOI account...

among other things, they show the account's creator getting approval from Interior's then-top lawyer, Daniel Jorjani, to take a swing at @amprog

"I am going to let it rip from the Bison account" https://t.co/SIIvFROPXX pic.twitter.com/HKLSHxwF0M
Chris D'Angelo (@c_m_dangelo) September 14, 2021

Faith Vander Voort, the Interior Departments top spokesperson, used her official government email account to set up the No Bull Bison account. She quickly chimed in: I think this would make a fantastic first No Bull from the Bison tweet.

Vander Voort drafted a series of tweets using Stemlers email and forwarded them to Jorjani. After some confusion ??, Jorjani initially responded he signed off on the thread.

Team, Vander Voort wrote to colleagues in the secretarys office. Wanted to let you all know that I received the golden thumb of compliance from Dan (see below). Unless I hear otherwise from any of you before 4:30pm, I am going to let it rip from the Bison account.

Im good, Willens responded approvingly, noting that a retweet from Bernhardt would be likely.

Vander Voort subsequently emailed Bernhardt to ask if she could retweet the post from his account. The documents do not include any response from the secretary, but his official government Twitter handle did retweet it later that day.

It wasnt until the following day, April 19, and only after HuffPost revealed that the @NoBullBison profile was set up using Vander Voorts government email address, that the Interior Department acknowledged the account as its own.

As HuffPost previously reported , @NoBullBisons run on social media was brief and insignificant. Over the six months it was active, it posted just five times and garnered little engagement.

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In its final tweet, the handle targeted then-Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, for apparently misstating the number of federally recognized tribes in the U.S. during a congressional hearing. But instead of a fair, accurate fact-check, Trump Interior officials used their troll account to misrepresent Haalands words.

.@RepDebHaaland, the Department of the Interior has a federal trust responsibility to 573 tribes, not 767, as you referred to at todays hearing.https://t.co/kOMdHFsvCX

No Bull from the Bison (@NoBullBison) May 15, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"No Bull from the Bison","author_url":"https://twitter.com/NoBullBison","cache_age":86400,"description":".@RepDebHaaland, the Department of the Interior has a federal trust responsibility to 573 tribes, not 767, as you referred to at todays hearing.https://t.co/kOMdHFsvCX No Bull from the Bison (@NoBullBison) May 15, 2019\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"No Bull from the Bison on 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.@RepDebHaaland , the Department of the Interior has a federal trust responsibility to 573 tribes, not 767, as you referred to at todays hearing.https://t.co/kOMdHFsvCX
No Bull from the Bison (@NoBullBison) May 15, 2019

In March, Haaland was confirmed as the 54th secretary of the Interior Department , the massive federal agency that oversees roughly one-fifth of all land in the U.S.

The @NoBullBison, thankfully, has stopped flatulating online.