Rep. Trey Gowdy said Wednesday that the EPA has failed to provide all documents he requested nearly two months ago related to Administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent use of first-class flights.
The South Carolina Republican and head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee had sought answers from the EPA on Feb. 20 about how Pruitt has been able to obtain waivers from federal rules to travel first class.
The EPA said it submits a security-related waiver for Pruitt to fly first class before each trip because of “unprecedented” threats he says he has received from travelers. The waiver has to be approved by multiple EPA officials before every trip.
“The EPA has failed to produce all the documents requested,” Gowdy said Wednesday in a new letter to Pruitt. “Those requests include, but are not limited to, any documents referring or relating to ‘specific, ongoing threats associated with the administrator’s air travel,’ which was the stated basis for obtaining first class tickets.”
The EPA has provided the committee some documents, including those showing that Pruitt spent more than $105,000 in first class travel in his first year.
Gowdy sent his staff to the EPA Tuesday to review records of Pruitt’s first-class travel and security expenses, according to ABC News.
Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to have a 24/7 security detail, prompted by multiple death threats he says he has received. The Associated Press last week reported the EPA has spent about $3 million on his security, including travel and overtime pay for Pruitt’s detail.
Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tom Carper of Delaware said Tuesday that they have seen several internal EPA documents, which they are keeping confidential, that found no specific credible security threats to Pruitt.
Gowdy confirmed in the letter that his committee is also investigating Pruitt for signing a $50-per-night lease agreement last year to live in the bedroom of a condo owned by the wife of energy lobbyist J. Steven Hart.
Gowdy said the committee is reviewing an April 4 memo written by Kevin Minoli, the top ethics official of the EPA, in which Minoli said he did not have all the facts when he ruled that the condo agreement reflected fair market value and did not violate federal gift rules.
“The April 4, 2018, memorandum raises questions about whether ethics officials who reviewed the lease had access to all relevant information, and whether all applicable ethics rules were considered when those officials concluded the lease agreement complied with federal ethics regulations,” Gowdy said in the letter to Pruitt.
Pruitt, from late February to early August of last year, paid $50 per night for a single bedroom in a Capitol Hill condo co-owned by Vicki Hart, the wife of energy lobbyist J. Steven Hart, whose firm had business interests before the EPA. Pruitt was charged only for the nights he stayed there.
Minoli said he did not have all the facts when he ruled that the $50-per-night lease agreement reflected fair market value and did not violate federal gift rules. But he also said he did not consider whether renting from the wife of an energy lobbyist would violate ethics rules.
To obtain more information, Gowdy asks Pruitt to provide him all communications he had with the Harts regarding the lease agreement.
