The head of an Oklahoma marketing firm with clients in the energy industry helped EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt get tickets to last year’s Rose Bowl game, according to a letter from the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to Renzi Stone, who leads the marketing firm Saxum, requested documents related Stone’s effort to help Pruitt get the tickets to the sold-out game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Georgia Bulldogs.
Cummings said in his letter that one of Saxum’s clients, Plains All American Pipeline, has a petition before the EPA related to a pipeline in Texas.
A spokesman for Plains All American Pipeline said the company no longer works with Saxum.
“Plains All American Pipeline is a former client of Saxum. Our prior association ended in November 2017 and was limited to Oklahoma-based public relations support for a pipeline construction project,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Stone serves as a member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents and has been since 2015. He confirmed on Twitter that he helped Pruitt get the tickets for the January game, but said his firm doesn’t have clients at the EPA. Stone also the request for the tickets was made by Pruitt through an aide.
“Each year mid-Dec people call for OU bowl tickets. Scott Pruitt, my friend since 2001, asked through an aide if he could buy Rose Bowl tix. I made connection to OU ticket office. He bought them. That’s it. I’ll respond to Rep. Cummings…we don’t do any work for clients at EPA,” Stone tweeted Friday.
Each year mid-Dec people call for OU bowl tickets. Scott Pruitt, my friend since 2001, asked through an aide if he could buy Rose Bowl tix. I made connection to OU ticket office. He bought them. That’s it. I’ll respond to Rep. Cummings…we don’t do any work for clients at EPA.
— C. Renzi Stone (@renzistone33) June 15, 2018
Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said Stone only helped to connect Pruitt with the university’s athletic department.
“It seems Representative Cummings is misconstruing the facts. Renzi Stone, a friend of Administrator Pruitt and regent to the University of Oklahoma, simply connected Pruitt to the athletic department. Pruitt purchased the tickets at face value from the OU athletic department. To report otherwise, is false, he said in a statement.
Cummings said in his letter Oversight Committee staff was informed of the ticket arrangement by Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s former director of scheduling and advance.
In a partial transcript of the interview, Hupp told committee staff Pruitt got the Rose Bowl tickets from Stone, who she described as “an acquaintance that works in some capacity for the university.”
Hupp told the committee Pruitt paid for the tickets, but said she did not know how much he paid for them, according to Cummings’ letter.
“Federal ethics rules prohibit government employees from accepting gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, unless they pay ‘market value,’” Cummings wrote. “A gift includes ‘any gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.’”
Cummings also said a “government employee may not accept a gift provided ‘because of the employee’s official position.’”
The New York Times reported Friday that Hupp helped book the EPA administrator’s travel to the Rose Bowl. The seats for the game were located near the 50-yard line, documents obtained by the Times show, and had a face value of $175 apiece. The Times said the tickets were part of a group of 750 reserved seats that the university holds for “discretionary use” at its games.
They were purchased five days before the game, and Pruitt’s wife and two children also had tickets.
The Times said Pruitt bought the tickets through a special allotment for the University of Oklahoma. Tickets for sale through the secondary market, though, were being sold for up to seven times what Pruitt paid, according to the New York Times.
Cummings is asking Stone to turn over documents related to the purchase of Pruitt’s Rose Bowl tickets, as well as other tickets or gifts Pruitt or his family may have received.
