Pruitt landlord’s husband sought EPA work for client
WASHINGTON — The lobbyist whose wife rented a condo to Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt at $50 a night sought EPA committee posts for a lobbying client, according to a newly released EPA memo.
J. Steven Hart’s seeking those appointments from his wife’s former tenant, Pruitt, shows “the extent to which the special interests providing him with gifts have sought specific favors from EPA in return,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The memo makes for the latest in a monthslong barrage of news reports and federal investigations questioning spending and other actions at Pruitt’s EPA. Pruitt’s former security chief, whose time with Pruitt saw the EPA administrator provided with round-the-clock security and first-class flights in the name of security, appeared for
an interview with staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee later on Wednesday.
The New York Times first reported the new memo from Hart, the lobbyist.
Hart wrote the email Aug. 10 to Ryan Jackson, Pruitt’s chief of staff.
“I want to highlight three candidates … who were nominated by our client, Dennis Treacy, the president of the Smithfield Foundation,” Hart wrote, suggesting appointments for the three to an EPA science advisory board.
The foundation is an arm of Smithfield Foods Inc. of Virginia, known for its hams.