Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt considered hiring an individual connected to the lobbyists that rented him a a Capitol Hill bedroom at a reduced rate, according to emails obtained by a top environmental group.
The revelations are the latest in a series of escalating scandals for the embattled agency head who is facing 13 separate federal investigations into his spending habits and other practices. President Trump remains supportive of Pruitt despite increasing concerns by some in his administration over the EPA administrator’s actions.
[Related: Ethics office wants new scandals added to Pruitt investigation]
In an email to Pruitt’s chief of staff Ryan Jackson in April 2017, lobbying firm Williams & Jensen chairman J. Stephen Hart attached the resume of a family friend. Hart said he “has talked to Scott about this kid who is important to us,” according to emails obtained by the Sierra Club and provided to the New York Times.
Hart and his wife Vicki for several months in 2017 rented out a room in their Capitol Hill house to Pruitt for $50 a night. “He told Vicki to talk to you about how to handle this,” Hart wrote. Jackson responded “On it,” according according the emails.
In May, Hart followed up with Jackson and asked if he wanted to meet the family friend, who would soon be in Washington D.C. It is unclear whether Jackson had such a meeting. The friend was never hired for a position at the agency.
Hart also provided Jackson with recommendations to sit on the EPA Science Advisory Board, and emailed the chief of staff about objections from his client, Coca-Cola, to regulations over certain chemicals.
[Related: Environmental group doubts EPA’s claim that Scott Pruitt almost never uses email]
EPA officials had previously maintained that the Hart family did not have business before the EPA at the time of the rental arrangement and say it was done in a manner that adhered to federal ethics requirements.
“As I have said repeatedly, I never received any special treatment from Administrator Pruitt or had any undue influence over the Environmental Protection Agency,” Stephen Hart said in a statement.
An EPA spokesman also said the email exchanges “did not impact any agency policy outcomes.”
The emails spurred renewed efforts by environmental groups to highlight Pruitt’s laundry list of potential ethics violations.
“We now have concrete evidence that Scott Pruitt offered to use taxpayer resources to do favors for the lobbyist who gave him a sweetheart deal on a D.C. condo,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, told the Times.
Pruitt is also facing pressure by some conservative lawmakers and pundits to address the slew of recent scandals, including his efforts to find his wife a job.
