Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s Abuses of Power

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is under 13 investigations and faces a variety of ethical allegations concerning his spending and management practices at the Environmental Protection Agency. Here are his actions under scrutiny:

• Since starting at the EPA, Pruitt has consistently funneled taxpayer money towards his $3.5 million-a-year 24/7 security detail — which he sends on missions to find his preferred moisturizer and pick up his dry cleaning. He also upgraded his official car to a larger SUV with bullet-resistant seat covers, leather interior, and WiFi; the upgrades cost $300 more a month, causing the first year lease of the vehicle to be $10,200.
• For the first six months of 2017, Pruitt lived in a condo in Capitol Hill which he rented for $50 a night (payments that he then fell behind on) from the wife of an energy industry lobbyist, J. Steven Hart. In July 2017, Pruitt and Hart met; following Hart’s retirement in April 2018, his law firm disclosed that he was lobbying the EPA in the first quarter of 2017 as well as the first three months of 2018. In March 2017, the EPA approved a project for a client of Hart’s lobbying firm. It was also later revealed that Pruitt discussed hiring a family friend of Hart’s.
• Pruitt has traveled extensively in first class, claiming that he was unsafe otherwise due to harassment (which has taken the form of people criticizing him for harming the environment). At the expense of American taxpayers, he has made frequent trips home to Oklahoma as well as exorbitant trips to Italy (which was partly planned by a conservative group) and Morocco (which was partly planned by a lobbyist).
• Pruitt purchased a $43,000 soundproof phone booth, which was later ruled to be a violation of federal spending laws.
• Pruitt purchased more than $24,000 worth of tactical pants and polos with taxpayer money.
• Pruitt also spent $1,560 on 12 silver fountain pens customized with the EPA’s seal and Pruitt’s signature; another $1,670 was spent on personalized journals and stationary.
• Pruitt has used his position at the EPA to task an aide with finding a job for his wife, who eventually landed a position at a conservative political group, the Judicial Crisis Network, which has backed Pruitt for years. Pruitt had also tasked an aide with helping his wife with possibly starting a Chick-fil-A franchise.
• Pruitt granted substantial pay raises to his favorite aides — Millan Hupp, the scheduling director, and Sarah Greenwalt, a senior counsel to the administrator — against the White House’s orders. Hupp reportedly was instructed to seek a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel, look at apartments for Pruitt, and plan a family vacation to the Rose Bowl for Pruitt’s family. Both aides resigned in June 2018.
• Pruitt reassigned or demoted at least five officials for raising concerns about his high spending and management style at the EPA — particularly regarding his purchasing of expensive office furniture, traveling in first class, and demanding a 20 person security detail.
• Pruitt has used four different email addresses over the course of his time as EPA Administrator. He has also only sent one email to someone outside of the EPA, giving rise to concern that he is communicating in private.
• Pruitt reportedly urged a coal mining industry group, the National Mining Association, to press President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
• When overhauling the EPA’s advisory boards, Pruitt made some appointments at the suggestion of Trump campaign contributors and oil and coal industry officials. He also tried to recruit top executives from oil and gas trading groups to fill positions within the EPA.
• Former associate administrator for the Office of Policy at the EPA, Samantha Dravis, and Pruitt’s current chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, confirmed in a hearing with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June 2018 how Pruitt extensively traveled first class or in a private plane, requested aides’ help in securing his wife a job with a salary of more than $200,000, tasked aides with reviewing his rental agreement, and asked aides to put his exorbitant EPA expenses on their personal credit cards.
• Pruitt had aides remove or alter meetings on his official calendar that would “look bad,” according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations who was forced to leave in February after raising questions on Pruitt’s spending and management. Such meetings included with fossil fuel industry executives.

In the midst of all this flagrant corruption and these abuses of power and resources, Pruitt undermined the fundamental mission of the EPA by rolling back key environmental protections and doing absolutely nothing to fight the clear national security threats wrought by climate change. Pruitt has rightly resigned from his post.

Truman Project will continue to add to this list as more unsavory conduct is uncovered; this list was last updated on 05 July 2018.