Today, in a bicameral letter sent to embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, members of Congress detailed meetings between Kevin Chmielewski and congressional investigators. Chmielewski, a Trump loyalist and former campaign staffer Trump has described as “a champ”, had served as the E.P.A.’s deputy chief of staff until he was removed from his post after raising objections to Pruitt’s repeated ethics violations and abuse of taxpayer funds.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy sent a letter to Scott Pruitt demanding Pruitt provide all information and documents the Committee requested in mid-February related to his wasteful spending and to further include information on his sweetheart housing deals with a fossil fuel lobbyist landlord.
Today, Politico reported that, in an attempt to cover up one of his many scandals, Scott Pruitt retaliated against and punished the career EPA staffer who approved the report Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Carper referenced to demand a congressional inquiry into his around the clock security detail. The report details that the threats Pruitt has received don’t justify the 24/7 security protection he currently makes taxpayers cover.
Scott Pruitt’s hell week - and weekend - of embarrassing round the clock headlines of his ethics violations looks to be continuing this week as news breaks that he personally approved massive raises for two of his employees after previously denying doing so. In order to get ahead of the Inspector General after Pruitt’s botched Fox News interview aired, top EPA aides began looking for files that contradicted Pruitt’s statement that he did not know about the raises.
The scandals for “the Kato Kaelin of Capitol Hill” are going into extra innings this weekend, as Pruitt’s corrupt behavior is reaching new levels of absurdity and obscenity, earning even more embarrassing headlines for the Trump Administration, and drawing scrutiny and pressure from across the country and across the aisle.
“It should by now be clear that Scott Pruitt’s scandals are not going to stop coming, and he will continue to humiliate himself and the Trump Administration every additional hour he is in office.” - Maura Cowley, Director of the Sierra Club’s Resist Campaign.
Scott Pruitt’s desperate attempts to save his job and repair his relationship with Donald Trump are unraveling faster than the flow of stories on his unethical actions.
Today, during the White House Press Briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was twice asked about the deluge of corruption scandals facing Scott Pruitt.
In a humiliating clip released of an interview with Ed Henry of Fox News, Scott Pruitt is pressed hard to explain why he directly defied Donald Trump by coordinating massive raises for his staff through an obscure loophole -- after the Trump White House rejected those raise. Pruitt attempts to pass the buck, blaming someone else, but he doesn’t actually know who. According to reporting by the Atlantic and government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by E&E News, Pruitt lied.
The drumbeat of scandals and embarrassing headlines created by Scott Pruitt for the Trump Administration has become relentless. Here’s just the latest round-up and some questions that Sarah Huckabee Sanders needs to be asked. Today, Sarah Huckabee Sanders should clarify whether Donald Trump will hold Pruitt accountable -- like he did with former HHS Secretary Tom Price and former VA Secretary David Shulkin -- for his blatantly unethical behavior and call on Pruitt to resign.
It may be spring, but Scott Pruitt’s scandals have snowballed into a full blown avalanche. Here’s what we know after this week’s blizzard of bad headlines for the Trump Administration courtesy of Scott Pruitt.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It may be spring, but Scott Pruitt’s scandals continue to snowball, as ABC News reported today that Pruitt worked directly with fossil fuel industry lobbyist Steven Hart to secure living arrangements in a townhouse owned by the same lobbyist’s wife. According to ABC, Pruitt paid for just one room in an otherwise unoccupied townhouse and experts on government ethics are raising questions as to whether this was a fair market transaction. Meanwhile, former White House Ethics Czar Norm Eisen said Pruitt likely secured the property below market value, categorizing the deal as a major ethics violation.