Embattled EPA chief’s aides resign

Two top aides to Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief who is facing an array of inquiries related to his spending and management, have quit.

WASHINGTON — Two top aides to Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief who is facing an array of investigations related to his spending and management practices, have resigned amid widening scrutiny of their roles at the agency.

The departures include Pasquale Perrotta, who served as the agency’s chief of security and was the architect of the costly and unusual team of bodyguards and other protective measures provided to Pruitt — measures that critics have called unnecessary.

Also departing was Albert Kelly, a longtime friend of Pruitt’s and a former banker until receiving a lifetime ban from the finance industry last year following a banking violation. At the EPA, Kelly ran the agency’s Superfund program, which oversees the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.

The resignations of Kelly and Perrotta follow a string of reports of Pruitt’s lavish spending and alleged conflicts of interest, including his office’s illegal purchase of a secure telephone booth, his condominium-rental agreement with the wife of an energy lobbyist, and accusations that he demoted or sidelined EPA employees who questioned his actions.

Pruitt, who is the subject of 11 federal investigations, is seeking to establish a legal-defense fund, according to people familiar with his plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity. These people said that they expect Pruitt to operate the fund privately, with no EPA affiliation.

Also on Tuesday, new details emerged about the lobbying of the EPA by J. Steven Hart, the lobbyist whose wife had last year rented a $50-a-night condo to Pruitt. Pruitt has contended that the rental agreement did not constitute a conflict of interest. Congressional investigators on Tuesday provided the New York Times with an email from Hart to Pruitt asking for help getting in getting three people recommended by the lobbying firm’s client, Smithfield Foods, appointed to the EPA’s prestigious Science Advisory Board.

The email was sent in August 2017 — a few weeks after Pruitt moved out of the apartment, but at a time when he still owed Hart’s wife money.

The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to interview Perrotta on Wednesday.