Letter claims more EPA spending abuses
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, insisted on staying in luxury hotels that were costlier than allowed by government standards, while also pushing to fly on an airline not on the government’s approved list so he could accrue more frequent flyer miles, one of his top former deputies at the agency has told congressional investigators.
The new allegations are detailed in a scathing six-page letter signed by two senators and three House lawmakers — all Democrats — whose staff members met this week with Kevin Chmielewski, who served as the EPA’s deputy chief of staff until he was removed from his post after raising objections to this and other spending.
In a separate letter Thursday, Democratic lawmakers also demanded information about two previously unknown EPA email addresses that have been used by Pruitt, asking if they were a tool for withholding public information from records requests.
Assertions detailed
Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the EPA, said the agency had consistently searched all email addresses associated with Pruitt when responding to records requests. Of the allegations outlined to lawmakers by Chmielewski, he said, “We will respond to members of Congress through the proper channel.”
According to Thursday’s sixpage letter from lawmakers, Chmielewski told congressional staff members during a meeting this week that Pruitt would often seek to schedule trips back to Oklahoma, where he still owns a home, so he could stay there for weekends. “Find me something to do,” were the instructions Pruitt gave his staff, after telling them he wanted to travel to particular destinations, the letter says, quoting Chmielewski, who was expected to sign off on the trips.
When planning a trip to Italy, Pruitt “refused to stay at hotels recommended by the U.S. Embassy, although the recommended hotel had law enforcement and other U.S. resources on site,” according to the letter, which was written and sent to Pruitt, asking him to turn over documents related to the letter’s claims. Instead, Pruitt chose to stay “at more expensive hotels with fewer standard security resources,” while bringing along his own security team “at taxpayer expense.”
For other trips, Pruitt pushed the agency to book him on Delta, even though it is not the federal government’s contract carrier, “because you want to accrue more frequent flyer miles,” the letter says.
The letter says that while Pruitt was living last year in a Capitol Hill condominium rented from the wife of an energy lobbyist, complaints came in to the EPA from the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, that “you had never paid any rent to him, and that your daughter damaged his hardwood floors by repeatedly rolling her luggage across the unit when she was staying there.”
A spokesman for Hart challenged the assertions in the letters from the Democrats, saying that his wife, Vicki, was the only one who had contacted the EPA and that the hardwood floors were not damaged. The spokesman added that Pruitt ultimately paid the rent, though he paid late.
‘Fraught’ with misconduct
Chmielewski also provided details about how Pruitt had assigned one of his aides, Millan Hupp, to “act as your personal real estate representative, spending weeks improperly using federal government resources and time to contact rental and seller’s agents, and touring numerous properties in which you might wish to reside.”
The letter also corroborates details previously reported, including that Pruitt and others at the agency retaliated against staff members, including Chmielewski, when they objected to the spending requests.
Chmielewski, for example, refused to approve first-class travel for one of Pruitt’s aides for a trip Pruitt took to Morocco last year, saying the cost violated federal rules. After that, he was told by Pruitt’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, that he was going to be fired or reassigned.
“The new information provided by Mr. Chmielewski, if accurate, leaves us certain that your leadership at EPA has been fraught with numerous and repeated unethical and potentially illegal actions on a wide range of consequential matters,” the letter says. It was signed by Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and Donald S. Beyer Jr. of Virginia, as well as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware.