White House changes its tone on EPA chief
WASHINGTON — In a marked change in tone, the White House says President Trump is not OK with recent revelations involving the embattled head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
For his part, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is denying he knew about big raises given to two of his closest aides and insisting he did nothing wrong in renting a bargain priced condo tied to an energy lobbyist.
Pruitt spoke in a series of interviews with Fox News and other conservative media outlets in an attempt to shore up his eroding position in an administration that has seen other top officials depart after ethical missteps.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the White House is reviewing Pruitt’s conduct and declined to confirm reports that the president called Pruitt in recent days to offer support.
Asked if Trump was OK with Pruitt’s actions, Sanders replied: “The president’s not.”
The remarks from Sanders were a departure from the enthusiastic support Pruitt has previously received from Trump, who has touted his environmental chief ’s relentless efforts to reverse, scrap or rewrite pollution limits opposed by industry
On Tuesday, the administration had put out word that the president had Pruitt’s back. By Wednesday, White House officials were describing his situation as unsustainable.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Pruitt rebuffed media reports that he bypassed the White House to grant huge pay raises to two young aides he brought with him from Oklahoma, where he previously served as state attorney general.
The Atlantic reported Tuesday that White House officials denied permission to grant the raises to the political appointees, but that Pruitt used a little-known legal maneuver to push them through anyway.
A 30-year-old lawyer serving as Pruitt’s senior legal counsel got a 53 percent raise, boosting her salary to more than $164,000. Pruitt’s 26year-old scheduling director got a 33 percent raise, increasing her salary to nearly $115,000.
The questions surrounding the raises are the latest ethical issues dogging Pruitt, who has been under increasing scrutiny for outsized spending that includes overseas trips, his use of first-class air travel and unusual security precautions.
Pruitt is also pushing back against criticism of his decision last year to lease a Capitol Hill condominium coowned by the wife of prominent Washington lobbyist Steven Hart, whose firm represents fossil fuel companies.
Pruitt paid $50 a night for the unit — totaling $6,100 in payments over the six-month period he leased the condo, an average of about $1,000 a month.