The federal government’s top ethics official is asking questions about Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s spending, housing and travel, and has asked the EPA to take “appropriate actions to address any violations.”
David J. Apol, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, sent a letter to the EPA asking about Pruitt’s $50-per-night rental agreement with the wife of an energy lobbyist, and frequent taxpayer-funded flights the administrator has taken to his home state of Oklahoma. According to the letter, obtained by the New York Times, he also wants to know about Pruitt’s reported decision to reassign or demote EPA employees who questioned his spending habits.
“The success of our government depends on maintaining the trust of the people we serve,” Apol wrote in a letter to Kevin Minoli, the top ethics official of the EPA. “The American public needs to have confidence that ethics violations, as well as the appearance of ethics violations, are investigated and appropriately addressed.”
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 Wednesday 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.
For example, the lease allowed for the use of a single room. However, several news reports have found that Pruitt’s adult daughter stayed in a second bedroom of the condo when she was working at the White House last year.
Minoli said he did not evaluate Hart’s business interests, or his firm’s, when making his determination that the condo was fair and not a gift. In other words, he did not consider whether renting from the wife of an energy lobbyist would violate ethics rules.
Apol’s letter asked if that new information was now prompting the EPA to reconsider its original choice.
“Additional information has now come to light that calls into question whether the earlier determination that the administrator paid market value for the use he made of the apartment would still be valid,” Apol wrote.
Apol said he’s worried about Pruitt’s frequent travel to Oklahoma on flights funded by the government. The EPA’s inspector general is already investigating Pruitt’s use of first-class travel, and flights to his home state.
The flights to Oklahoma, where Pruitt served as attorney general, “do raise concerns about whether the administrator is using his public office for personal gain in violation of ethics rules,” he wrote.
Finally, Apol said he was worried about Pruitt’s reported punishing of staff who disagreed with him about spending on travel and security.
“If true, it is hard to imagine any action that could more effectively undermine an agency’s integrity than punishing or marginalizing employees who strive to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations that safeguard that integrity,” Apol wrote.
The Office of Government Ethics, which Apol leads, does not have the authority to punish Pruitt itself. But the office can ask that President Trump take action to punish a federal official who has violated federal rules, the Times says.
Trump has repeatedly defended Pruitt, even as some Republicans have called on the EPA administrator to resign.
