Scott Pruitt has resigned as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s according to Donald Trump’s Twitter feed:
…on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2018
Pruitt, the 50-year-old former Oklahoma attorney general, has been implicated in a series of scandals and ethical controversies over the past several months. Among them were reports Pruitt had: misspent taxpayer dollars on lavish expenses for himself; took first-class flights; unnecessarily expanded his security entourage; went around the White House and used accounting loopholes to get raises for political aides; paid rent for an apartment in Washington well below market value that happened to be owned by a lobbyist with interests before the EPA; misused agency staffers to conduct personal or nonofficial functions on his behalf; used his position to obtain a job for his wife.
As the stories and congressional inquiries stacked up, Pruitt held on, with the White House privately frustrated by Pruitt but the president seemingly unwilling to fire the Oklahoma Republican. On his Twitter account last month, Pruitt posted a photo of himself with Trump in the Oval Office, announcing a new EPA rule and wishing the president a happy birthday. In the photo Pruitt is seated at the Resolute Desk while Trump stands and looks on.
In keeping w/ @POTUS’s promise, we have stopped the 2015 #WOTUS rule & I just announced to folks in Lincoln that a much more reasonable #WOTUS rule will be sent to OMB tomorrow. Time to provide farmers & ranchers nationwide w/ regulatory certainty!
Happy birthday, Mr. President! pic.twitter.com/dtotUfFknX
— Administrator Pruitt (@EPAScottPruitt) June 14, 2018
In recent days, former top aides to Pruitt at EPA had testified before the House Oversight committee and offered more details about Pruitt’s ethical lapses. One aide, the New York Times reported just before the announcement of Pruitt’s resignation, said she was fired shortly after raising objections to the deletion of information from the administrator’s schedule. Conservative outlets and figures began to call for Pruitt to resign or for President Trump to fire him. (The editors of this magazine were among the first to say Pruitt should go, back in May.) Even so, allies of Pruitt were still claiming last week he was a victim of his “left-wing critics.”
And it seemed that Pruitt was still hanging in there. On Wednesday, he even appeared at the White House for Independence Day celebrations. The next day, however, Trump’s tweet confirmed what seemed likely as more Pruitt aides began to come out against their former boss.
Update: The EPA has released a resignation letter from Pruitt to Trump. After praising the president for his “courage, steadfastness and resolute committment,” Pruitt blames the “unrelenting attacks on me personally” for taking a “sizable toll” on him and his family. Nowhere in the letter does Pruitt take any responsibility for any of the actions he has been accused of, nor does he dispute them in general or in particular.
In the letter, Pruitt says his resignation will be effective as of July 6.
