The Environmental Protection Agency’s senior counsel has resigned amid turmoil inside the agency while Administrator Scott Pruitt attempts to fend off multiple scandals.
Sarah Greenwalt, a close aide to Pruitt who worked with him when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general, is leaving the agency, according to the Washington Post and New York Times.
Her resignation comes as another top Pruitt staffer, Millan Hupp, his director of scheduling, resigned from the agency after telling a congressional committee that she was asked by Pruitt to obtain a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
Greenwalt attracted notice for receiving a more than 52 percent pay raise, from $107,435 to $164,200, from the EPA, which the agency gave by invoking a little-used statute despite the White House’s disapproval. Pruitt later reversed the raise after being criticized. Hupp, who also followed Pruitt from Oklahoma, had her raise revoked as well.
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.
Greenwalt and Hupp are among the EPA staffers who have interviewed with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its probe over Pruitt’s spending and ethics.
Their resignations are the latest high-level departures of aides close to Pruitt.
Liz Bowman, the top communications staffer at the EPA, left the agency last month.
The EPA also recently announced the departures of Albert “Kell” Kelly, who led the agency’s Superfund program that helps clean up hazardous sites, and Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, the head of Pruitt’s security detail, a major figure and witness in federal probes of Pruitt.
Pruitt, in testimony before Congress, has downplayed his role in various spending, hiring, and security decisions at the agency, mostly blaming career and political staff who work under him. Pruitt’s deflecting of responsibility has damaged morale, sources tell the Washington Examiner, leading to a flood of departures.
Despite the developments, President Trump reiterated his confidence in Pruitt Wednesday while at a Cabinet meeting at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“EPA is doing really, really well,” Trump said. “Somebody has to say that. You know that, Scott.”
