Sarah Sanders: Federal government had 'nothing to do' with Puerto Rico contract

The White House is standing behind U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke who has claimed no involvement in a $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy, a small firm based in his Montana hometown.

During a briefing Friday, a reporter asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if President Trump had asked Zinke about the deal in their meeting earlier in the day.

“[The president] did ask Secretary Zinke just for clarification purposes and he reiterated, once again, that we have no role — the federal government, and specifically he, had no role in that contract,” Sanders said.

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“I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico. I welcome all investigations into the allegations,” Zinke shared a similar sentiment on Twitter.

He also included a statement which said, in part, “Neither myself nor anyone in my office has advocated for this company in any way.”

The controversy began after surprising information about the company and contract were reported by the media.

“Whitefish Energy, a two-year-old energy company from Zinke’s hometown, had just two employees prior to being awarded the contract last month by Puerto Rico’s quasi-public utility, PREPA,to fix part of the island’s power grid that was destroyed by Hurricane Maria,” according toBusiness Insider.

And, in addition to a reported lack of a competitive bidding process, the deal’s terms seem to be highly beneficial to the company.

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Lawmakers have since expressed an interest in looking into the matter further.

Meanwhile, Sanders has indicated the contract is set to undergo an audit.

“I’m not going to comment before the audit is conducted, but we certainly look forward to seeing the results of that. And once again, this was a state and local decision made by the Puerto Rican authorities and not the federal government,” she told reporters. “But we will look into the audit once it’s published.”