A scandal for all seasons: those Scott Pruitt ethics violations in full
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Lobbyists, hand lotion and Chick-fil-A – it’s hard to keep up with the scandals engulfing the EPA administrator
Scott Pruitt, the seemingly immoveable administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has an eclectic, almost itinerant, taste in corruption scandals.
Pruitt is best known for the ethical quagmires in this administration, shared with other Trump cabinet members, such as indulging in taxpayer-funded first class travel and spending much of his time playing an amenable host to corporations he is meant to regulate.
But the former Oklahoma attorney general’s appetite for controversy has also taken him in some daring and innovative new directions, offering up a smorgasbord that includes demanding his bodyguards drive him in search of his favourite moisturizing lotion, spending $1,500 on 12 pens, and bulldozing mere perceptions by literally living at an energy lobbyist’s apartment.
Pruitt’s tastes have a darker side, however, such as the revelations that he signed off on improper pay raises for favoured staff and has overseen an operation that physically bars journalists from covering his public genuflection for businesses. Not to mention that he has allegedly wreaked revenge upon colleagues who questioned his spending habits.
Even as Pruitt strives to tick off every conceivable ethical violation, the EPA administrator has still found time to peel back dozens of Obama-era rules aimed at reducing air and water pollution, as well as dismantle any vestige of action on climate change to the point where the very words have been scrubbed from the EPA website.
It’s been a dizzying, harrowing year for beleaguered agency staff, who have been tasked with unwinding their painstaking rule-making work while being led by an administrator who is the subject of a dozen different ethics investigations.
“It’s a toxic brew and the EPA is an unhappy place right now,” William Reilly, who was EPA administrator under George HW Bush, told the Guardian. “There is no precedent for this sort of behaviour and I don’t think the ship can be righted with this administrator. It would’ve got him fired in any administration but this one. It’s new and unwelcome territory.”
Democrats, environmental groups and Cher have repeatedly called for Pruitt’s removal. Many Republicans, too, are also heartily sick of him. “I think he’s acting like a moron,” said Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “I’m astounded at some of the stuff I read.” Joni Ernst, a senator from Iowa, said Pruitt was “as swampy as you get”.
Fortunately for Pruitt, his boss, Donald Trump , has yet to be swayed. “EPA is doing really, really well,” the president said on Wednesday. “Somebody has to say that about you a little bit.”
Given the relentless march of Pruitt controversies, it can be hard to keep up. Here are the main ones.
Travel
Pruitt spent more than $105,000 on first-class flights in his first year on the job, excluding use of military jets and helicopters. One 40-minute private flight cost $5,719. Pruitt has attempted to justify this expense because of threats that include obscenities shouted at him by the public and a letter from an 85-year-old, who wished he would “choke to death of cancer of the guts”.
He has since promised to move back to economy class. Pruitt has frequently traveled home to Oklahoma on the taxpayer’s dime, often asking staff to find work-related reasons.
He took a $100,000 trip with staff to Morocco, partly arranged by a lobbyist. A trip to Italy cost around $120,000 and involved a private tour of the Vatican and dinner with Cardinal George Pell , a climate change denier who was under investigation over sexual abuse.
The EPA’s inspector general is investigating Pruitt’s travel.
Unusual office supplies
Pruitt’s tenure has been marked by an unusual desire for secrecy for what is, essentially, a public health job. He installed a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office that the Government Accountability Office has deemed violates federal spending laws.
Another $9,000 was spent sweeping Pruitt’s office for listening bugs and installing biometric locks. Pruitt’s head of security wanted to spend another $70,000 to replace two desks.A total of $1,560 was billed to the EPA for 12 customized silver pens.
Pruitt has repeatedly blamed his staff for erroneous or extravagant spending.
The lobbyists
Even before being appointed as EPA chief, Pruitt was known for having an extremely close relationship with fossil fuel executives and lobbyists.
In March, it emerged that Pruitt lived for about six months in a Washington condo owned by an energy lobbyist at a cut-price $50 a night – and was still reportedly late with the rent.
And Pruitt once secretly bought a home in Oklahoma with a registered lobbyist and last year accepted VIP basketball tickets from Joseph Craft, a billionaire coal baron and Trump donor who has pushed for the loosening of environmental rules.
The security guards
On his first day at the EPA, Pruitt asked for, and was granted, a 24/7 security detail that includes around 20 people. The cost of this protection amounted to $3.5m in Pruitt’s first year – far more than his predecessors.
Pruitt’s team, which unsuccessfully sought a bulletproof SUV for their ward, have accompanied the administrator on risk-laden trips to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl. Recently, it emerged that Pruitt used his bodyguards to pick up dry cleaning and look for a certain moisturizing lotion found in Ritz-Carlton hotels.
He has also reportedly asked other staff to pick up protein bars and Greek yoghurt for him, as well as arrange private accommodation and even ask the Trump International hotel for an old mattress. Government employees generally aren’t allowed to deploy staff for personal tasks.
Chick-fil-A
Internal EPA emails have shed light on how Pruitt had an agency staffer contact Dan Cathy, an executive at the fast food chain Chick-fil-A, over a “potential business opportunity”.
This “opportunity” turned out to be a bid to secure a Chick-fil-A franchise for Pruitt’s wife, Marlyn. A company spokeswoman said Marlyn Pruitt started a franchise application but didn’t complete it.
“My wife is an entrepreneur. I love, she loves, Chick-fil-A, it’s a franchise of faith. It’s an exciting time,” said Pruitt, presumably alluding to the company owner’s conservative religious bent, which has manifested itself in a stance against same-sex marriage.
Staff upheaval
As ethical problems have engulfed Pruitt, various aides have departed the EPA. Spokeswoman Liz Bowman and policy adviser Samantha Dravis have left in recent months, followed in the past week by legal counsel Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, the scheduling director who was assigned to secure the mattress from the Trump hotel. Hupp’s sister Sydney also worked for Pruitt and was asked to set up the Chick-fil-A meeting.
At least five other EPA officials were either reassigned, demoted or requested new jobs after questioning Pruitt’s spending habits. Pruitt has denied any retribution but former deputy chief of staff Kevin Chmielewski has called this a “bold-faced” lie.
Of greater importance in the work to safeguard clean air and water, about 700 EPA staff have left the agency since Pruitt took over.
Transparency
Pruitt has argued that scientific work should be transparent, to the point that he mooted a televised debate between climate scientists and those who deny the planet is warming due to human activity.
His own activities are particularly opaque, however. Meetings and public events are routinely kept secret until afterwards, or strictly vetted.
Reporters who cover Pruitt frequently encounter hostility. The EPA barred certain outlets from a recent summit, with one AP reporter physically removed by a security guard.
The EPA’s press office regularly unleashes personal attacks on journalists simply for relaying verifiable facts, with spokesman Jahan Wilcox recently telling Elaina Plott of the Atlantic, “You have a great day, you’re a piece of trash”, for accurately reporting the departure of Millan Hupp.
Photograph: Justin Merriman/Getty Images
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Yet he still has his job and trump thinks he is doing good.
These are trumps people and his base is fine with this?
Seems so, sadly some people will defend trump and his people to the detriment of us all.
The only people who could take action are in the Administration or in Congress.
Republicans.
Pruitt is undoing everything that Obama did, so Republicans love him.
He can do any shit he wants.