Pruitt’s dinner with cardinal accused of abuse was kept offff public schedule

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined last year in Rome with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denialist and Vatican leader who was also facing sexual abuse allegations. The EPA later released offi-cial descriptions of the dinner that intentionally did not mention the cardinal’s presence, according to three current and former EPA offifficials.

Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, said in an interview that top political appointees at the agency feared that the meeting would reflect poorly on Pruitt if it were made public. Twenty days after the dinner, authorities in Australia charged Pell with sexual assault; he has denied the charges.

“It was a no-brain er ,” Chmielewski said of the decision to keep Pell’s participation quiet.

On Friday, Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesman, issued a statement confirming the June 9 meal took place while emphasizing that it “was not a private one-on-one dinner” and saying that Pruitt wasn’t aware of the allega- tions against Pell. He also said the EPA had no knowledge that the cardinal would be attending the dinner.

However, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that as early as May 12, Pruitt’s scheduler, Millan Hupp, was working on plans for Pruitt to meet with Pell. “Dinner with Cardinal Pell and others,” an email says, proposing the dinner for June 7 and adding, “Note: His 76th birthday is tomorrow.”

The dinner Pell attended ultimately took place June 9 at La Terrazza, a restaurant in the fifive- star Hotel Eden overlooking Rome.