The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog is opening an investigation into Administrator Scott Pruitt’s use of multiple email addresses and whether federal records requests are searching all of his accounts.
The EPA’s inspector general confirmed the probe in a letter to Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who requested it and made public the impending investigation on Tuesday.
There are now 12 federal investigations involving Pruitt’s spending, ethics, hiring, and security decisions, including the latest one.
On Wednesday, Pruitt is scheduled to testify in the Senate about his fiscal 2019 budget priorities, but lawmakers likely will grill him about his numerous scandals involving excess spending, lobbyists planning trips abroad, and big pay raises for his favored staff.
The email issue is perhaps the tamest of the probes.
Democratic senators revealed last month that the EPA has four email addresses for Pruitt.
The agency recently said it is reviewing all of its Freedom of Information Act responses under Pruitt to ensure they included all his email accounts.
The agency was responding to a request from Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who sought more information on the email accounts.
Having several secondary accounts has become common practice by administrators because of the high volume of emails received by their primary account, the EPA has said in defending Pruitt.
The agency’s inspector general also investigated President Barack Obama’s first EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, who used a secondary account under the name “Richard Windsor” for official business.
