Heat builds on EPA’s Pruitt
President lauds him, but White House voices concern
WASHINGTON — EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt once seemed immune from the Trump administration chaos. No more.
Questions are dogging Pruitt over first- class plane trips at taxpayer expense, a housing deal from a lobbyist’s wife and big government payouts for his friends. The antiregulatory crusader’s days in the Trump administration may be numbered.
By midweek, even Pruitt looked rattled by how fast things were unraveling as he struggled to explain on national television how two aides he recruited from his home state of Oklahoma came to receive immense pay hikes — one for $57,000 — that the White House had refused to authorize. He bristled on Fox News when asked how accepting a below-market roomrental from the wife of a Washington l obbyist whose firm does business before the EPA fit with President Donald Trump’s vow to “drain the swamp.”
Pruitt has found little refuge at the White House.
Asked Wednesday if Trump is comfortable with the alleged ethics lapses swirling around Pruitt, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was frank. “The president’s not,” she said. “We’re reviewing the situation.”
On Thursday, the White House repeated its con- Embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s situation appears to have unraveled quickly. cern. “We expect that administrator Pruitt (will) answer those questions,” said deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley.
Pruitt, who denies any ethical lapses or abuse of taxpayer money, may yet hang onto his job at the EPA. As he boarded Air Force One on Thursday, Trump was asked if he had confidence in Pruitt. “I do,” he said. Later, Trump told reporters he would “look at” the reports about Pruitt and “make that determination.” But he added, “I think he’s done a fantastic job. I think he’s done an incredible job. He’s been very courageous.”
Buffered by the adoration that oil and coal industries heap upon him as he dismantles Obama-era environmental policies, Pruitt had avoided the turbulence and turnover gripping Trump’s inner circle. His supporters had once even floated his name as a possible attorney general replacement.
Some Trump allies are rushing to Pruitt’s defense as he confronts charges that he abused his office and showed poor ethical judgment. But even before the controversies over pay hikes and housing deals, White House confidence in Pruitt was eroded by headlines about Pruitt’s penchant for flying firstclass at taxpayer expense. He insisted security concerns mandated first-class tickets but vowed to scale it back.
Pruitt’s luxury plane travel, demands for a large personal security detail and other spending at the agency triggered alarms for some of the EPA staffers who managed such things. Several of them, according to The New York Times, were reassigned or demoted when they brought their concerns to Pruitt. The head of Pruitt’s security detail was reportedly reassigned soon after refusing Pruitt’s request to use a government vehicle’s sirens and flashing lights to cut through Washington traffic during a nonemergency trip. EPA officials said Pruitt had no role in when sirens were used.
Pruitt says the cascade of allegations about his ethics is part of a conspiracy against him and the Trump policy agenda. The former Oklahoma attorney general is confronting it by avoiding the mainstream media and taking his story to conservative outlets such as Fox News and the Washington Examiner.
As calls for his resignation grew midweek to include two House Republicans, Pruitt told the Examiner it is much about nothing.
“It’s toxic here,” he said of Washington. “There are people that have long in this town done business a different way and this agency has been the poster child of it. And so, do I think that because we are leading on this agenda that there are some who want to keep that from happening? Absolutely. And do I think that they will resort to anything to achieve that? Yes.”
The trade publication Inside EPA reported Thursday that a key source of the damaging information circulated about Pruitt is former White House staffer Rob Porter, who resigned amid allegations he had been physically abusive to women, including two ex-wives.
The report cites anonymous sources and Porter has not commented. But one of Pruitt’s top confidantes is an ex-girlfriend of Porter’s who informed the White House about his alleged violent history with women. That Pruitt aide, policy adviser Samantha Dravis, resigned from the EPA last week.
Just before Dravis left the agency, Sen. Tom Car- per, D-Del., had begun raising questions about her work history. Last week, he asked the EPA’s inspector general to investigate reports he had heard that Dravis was absent from work for much or all of November, December and January. Pruitt and the EPA did not respond to requests for comment.
Top White House officials are making known their frustration that Pruitt’s controversies are undermining the president’s promise to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington.
If the EPA chief hangs on, it may be because Trump can’t afford more administration turmoil. He recently dismissed his secretary of state and his Veterans Affairs chief over Twitter. And since Trump’s appointment of CIA director Mike Pompeo to the secretary of state job leaves the CIA post to be filled, that meansthree Senate confirmation battles are looming as the GOP-led Congress tries to hang on to power in this year’s midterm elections.
There were already three open EPA inspector general investigations into Pruitt before this week, involving his first class travel, his hiring practices and his installation of a $43,000 phone booth in his office meant to deter eavesdroppers. And the inspector general is now considering the launch of a fourth into the housing deal he negotiated in a condo owned by the wife of Washington lobbyist J. Steven Hart.