Scrutiny of Pruitt now involves email, costly ride

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of a Senate oversight committee is pressing the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to provide details about his use of multiple government email addresses.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso, of Wyoming, issued a letter asking EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to disclose all his email addresses and affirm that all were being searched in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Tuesday that the agency maintains two email addresses for Pruitt that are used by his staff for public correspondence and maintaining his calendar. A third is used by Pruitt himself. A fourth account also was created for Pruitt, but Wilcox said it had never been used.

“When we receive a FOIA request all accounts are searched before we respond,” Wilcox said.

Barrasso’s letter followed one sent last week by Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkey of Oregon and Tom Carper of Delaware asking EPA’s inspector general to review the issue. The two Democrats, both members of the Senate environment committee, expressed concern that the agency’s searches for public records may not cover all of the EPA administrator’s accounts.

In his letter, Barrasso recounted that during confirmation hearings last year Pruitt had assured the senators he would not take any actions that would make it more difficult or impossible to access his official written communications under the FOIA.

Pruitt has been under intense scrutiny since it was first reveled last month that he had stayed last year in a bargainpriced Capitol Hill condo tied to a fossil-fuels lobbyist. The embattled EPA administrator and those around him are the subject of multiple investigations launched by government watchdogs and congressional committees looking into luxury travel expenses, outsized security spending and massive raises awarded to political appointees.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Pruitt upgraded his official car last year to a costlier, larger vehicle with bullet-resistant covers over bucket seats, according to interviews and federal records.

Recent EPA administrators have traveled in a Chevrolet Tahoe, and agency officials had arranged for Pruitt to use the same vehicle when he joined the administration. But he switched to a larger, newer and more highend Chevy Suburban last June.

One former EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Pruitt remarked that he wanted the larger car because it was similar to ones in which some other Cabinet officials rode. The first year’s lease of the vehicle cost $10,200, according to federal contracting records.

The records show the EPA administrator’s office signed a lease in June on the Suburban, paying more than $300 extra per month for upgrades such as a leather interior, bucket seats in the second row and WiFi and GPS navigation.

The head of Pruitt’s security detail, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, subsequently approved the addition of Kevlar-like seat covers to the vehicle at a cost of hundreds of dollars, according to one official, on the grounds that it served as a security precaution.

Meanwhile, the 2014 Chevy Tahoe that was used by Gina McCarthy, Pruitt’s predecessor, has largely sat idle, according to several current and former staffers. The agency had its lease renewed on Feb. 2, 2017, at a cost of $9,180.