ENERGY/RICK PERRY: “As a photographer for the Department of Energy, Simon Edelman regularly attended meetings with Secretary Rick Perry and snapped pictures for official purposes.
Now he is out of a job and seeking whistle-blower protections after leaking photographs of Mr. Perry meeting with a major energy industry donor to President Trump.
Late last year, Mr. Edelman said, he shared with journalists photos he shot at the private meeting between Mr. Perry and the campaign contributor Robert E. Murray, the head of one of the country’s largest coal mining companies, Murray Energy.
One photo showed the two men embracing; another captured the cover sheet of a confidential ‘action plan’ that Mr. Murray brought to the meeting last March calling for policy and regulatory changes friendly to the coal industry.
Democrats and some environmental groups seized on the photos as evidence of the energy industry’s direct line to Mr. Perry, who had been in the job less than a month when the meeting occurred.
Mr. Edelman, who has not previously disclosed his identity as the source of the photographs, said in an interview that he wanted to expose the close relationship between the two men. Based on the ‘action plan’ and conversations he overheard, Mr. Edelman said, Mr. Perry had tilted the administration’s energy policy to favor Murray Energy and other coal companies.”
-Ben Protess, “He Leaked a Photo of Rick Perry Hugging a Coal Executive. Then He Lost His Job.,” The New York Times online, Jan. 17, 2018