Pruitt now faces retaliation probe

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt retaliated against staffers who questioned his spending and management decisions, according to three individuals familiar with the probe.

During Pruitt’s tenure, the EPA has reassigned or taken administrative action against several career officials and one political appointee who had objected to the way he was spending taxpayer funds or using the perks of his office, these individuals said.

Politico first reported that the probe was underway. Pruitt is facing more than a dozen federal inquiries into his spending and management decisions, including review of his first-class travels, installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office and his $50-per-night condo rental from a Washington lobbyist.

Attorneys from the Office of Special Counsel, which responds to whistleblower complaints from federal employees, are in the process of speaking to a half-dozen current and former employees as part of the case, according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff operations. The office is taking the matter “extremely seriously,” Chmielewski said Monday.

Chmielewski, a Trump appointee who has said publicly that he was fired in February after questioning Pruitt’s spending, said he spent at least six hours speaking to officials from the special counsel’s office Thursday. The office has assigned three attorneys to review claims that he and other EPA officials have made, Chmielewski added.

In April, Pruitt denied any retaliation during a pair of hearings on Capitol Hill.

Neither the Office of Special Counsel nor the EPA would comment on the matter Monday. EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in an email that the “EPA does not comment on matters involving OSC.”