One of Donald Trump’s top foreign policy advisors is trying to wrest control of a Montana dam from two Native American tribes as part of a bizarre anti-Muslim campaign.
Joseph Schmitz, an attorney and former Pentagon inspector general, was tapped as one of Trump’s five foreign policy advisors last month, along with a bewildering mix of conspiracy theorists and “third-rate people.”
Schmitz served as co-counsel in a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of Montana State Senator Bob Keenan (R-Bigfork) and former state Senator Verdell Jackson (R-Kalispell) asking a court to block the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes from taking over management of the former Kerr Dam, reported the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights...
The attorneys claimed the dam transfer would allow the Turkish government and terrorists to obtain nuclear materials, although they were unable to provide any factual evidence of their claims...
Schmitz and Kogan voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit in October after they were unable to provide evidence of their claims about a terrorist alliance with Native Americans.
The lawsuit, and Trump’s embrace of Schmitz, highlights the links between anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists and efforts to strip Native Americans of their rights, property and heritage...
Trump’s anti-Muslims views are well known, but he doesn’t much like Native Americans, either.
He’s fought against the right of tribes to establish casinos under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and he’s complained for years about his competitors in that business using racist remarks...
