SCOTT PRUITT
Administrator
2017-2018
AIDE SOUGHT A NEW APARTMENT FOR SCOTT PRUITT, AND AN ‘OLD MATTRESS’ FROM TRUMP HOTEL
Scott Pruitt, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, used one of his top aides last year essentially as a personal assistant, having her help him search for an apartment as well as to try to procure a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel, congressional transcripts show.
The aide, Millan Hupp, who serves as Mr. Pruitt’s scheduling director, also helped Mr. Pruitt obtain tickets to last year’s Rose Bowl football game.
June 4, 2018
PRUITT ALLIES SOUGHT EPA JOBS FOR FRIENDS, FAMILY AS COMPANIES SUGGESTED HIRES, EMAILS SHOW
July 3, 2018
Just months into the Trump administration, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's allies from Oklahoma contacted Pruitt and his chief of staff trying to get jobs for family friends and a chemical industry lobbyist – and Pruitt himself tried to recruit from the oil and gas industry, according to internal EPA emails.
Related All Star: Henry Darwin
SCOTT PRUITT OUT AT EPA
July 5, 2018
Pruitt also came under fire for enriching political appointees at the agency. The Atlantic reported that in March, Pruitt circumvented the normal bureaucratic process to approve substantial pay increases for two EPA staffers after the White House refused to sign off on the raises. Both aides later resigned. One later told House investigators that she was routinely asked to do personal tasks for Pruitt, including one instance in which she called the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., to ask about purchasing a used mattress.
BEHOLD SCOTT PRUITT'S SOUNDPROOF PANIC ROOM, AS SEEN FROM HIS OTHER PANIC ROOM
E&E News has obtained the first publicly released photo of the secure phone booth Pruitt had installed in the EPA administrator’s office in 2017 via a Freedom of Information Act request. The booth was one of the many ways Pruitt abused his position to obtain bizarre personal perks when he wasn’t eviscerating environmental regulations—such as a 24/7 security detail to handle protesters, a sweetheart condo deal, $120,000 in opposition research against his critics, secret work email accounts, a bulletproof desk, and luxury travel and amenities such as 5-star dinner in Rome with a climate change-denying Catholic cardinal who also happened to be an alleged pedophile.
August 31, 2020
SCOTT PRUITT WAS EVEN MORE SELFISH AND VENGEFUL THAN WE THOUGHT
When viewed in light of Pruitt’s history at the EPA, the allegations in Chmielewski’s lawsuit reveal a familiar pattern of a man far more concerned with self-preservation than ethical considerations. In an EPA typified by deregulation and delay, Chmielewski claims he was elbowed out a day after The Washington Post broke the story about Pruitt’s first-class travel. But it makes sense that retribution would come swiftly for someone who broke Pruitt’s cardinal rule: Never put other people before yourself.
October 26, 2020