Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Wednesday denied reports that one of his press aides shopped negative stories about Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
“That was not happening,” Pruitt said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee. “We have investigated that and spoken to Interior [about it].”
A member of Pruitt’s press team, Michael Abboud, tried to get the media to report on negative stories about Zinke as a way to deflect attention from investigations of Pruitt’s spending and ethics, the Atlantic reported this month.
Zinke is also facing probes of his spending on travel.
Pruitt said Wednesday that Abboud denied shopping negative Zinke stories. He added that Pruitt’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, contacted Interior’s chief of staff, Scott Hommel, to reassure him of that.
The Atlantic and other media outlets, including the New York Times, said the reports angered President Trump and perhaps caused him to sour on Pruitt.
Trump has refused to fire Pruitt despite calls from multiple lawmakers to do so, citing his deregulatory actions at the EPA, which resonate with Trump’s political base.
