Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s trip to Morocco in December may have cost more than double the amount originally reported.
The EPA spent more than $100,000 on Pruitt’s trip, compared to the originally reported $40,000, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post.
The trip itself was arranged by former Comcast lobbyist Richard Smotkin, who has known Pruitt for years, the newspaper reported.
It took months for the lobbyist and Pruitt aides to arrange the logistics for the trip, according to four individuals familiar with the visit to the North African kingdom.
Since the visit, Smotkin won a $40,000-a-month contract last month with the Moroccan government to promote the country’s cultural and economic interests. The newspaper said the contract is retroactive to Jan. 1. Smotkin had recently registered as a foreign agent representing the government of Morocco.
The cost of the trip exceeded $100,000, according to the documents. The airfare alone cost $16,217, and the agency spent another $494 for Pruitt to spend one night at a luxury hotel in Paris.
Eight staffers accompanied him on the trip as did his round-the-clock security detail.
Pruitt told lawmakers last week that he was in the country strictly to work out the environmental side of a free-trade deal between Morocco and the United States.
The EPA’s inspector general is investigating the Morocco trip as part of a probe into Pruitt’s lavish domestic travel and security costs. Critics have questioned the trip and his focus on liquefied natural gas exports, which fall under the Energy Department’s purview.
