Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt shot down a report that he requested President Trump to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions so he could replace Sessions.
The denial comes after CNN reported that Pruitt made such an appeal to Trump earlier this year.
“This report is simply false,” Pruitt said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “[Attorney] General Sessions and I are friends, and I have always said I want nothing more than to see him succeed in his role.”
The statement comes after a spokesperson for the agency said it “will not be commenting on anonymous sources who are working to distract Americans from the Trump [a]dministration’s accomplishments on regulatory certainty and environmental stewardship.”
The CNN report cited three people familiar with the request and claimed that the discussion occurred during an Oval Office meeting with Trump. Pruitt suggested that he would take Sessions’ place for 210 days as outlined under the Vacancies Reform Act, which allows the president to fill a position at a vacancy for a limited time if the official “dies, resigns or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office.”
Pruitt said he would head to Oklahoma after that period of time to run for office, CNN reports.
Pruitt has been the subject of controversy in recent months, as he has come under fire for his travel on first-class flights, the use of his EPA-funded security detail, his dwelling at a Capitol Hill condo co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist for a rate of $50 a night, among a host of other issues.
