EPA Chief Pruitt Must Go ASAP: Or is Trump Waiting for More Corruption to Pile Up

The arrogant Scott Pruitt vs. America

Plenty of fire and corruption from “Smokey the Pruitt”

This update of the story goes more downhill ever since Pruitt took over the EPA – this update and whole story from the Washington Post re: Pruitt’s abuse of his office and corruption and law breaking:

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last year had a top aide help contact Republican donors who might offer his wife a job, eventually securing her a position at a conservative political group that has backed him for years, according to multiple individuals familiar with the matter.

The job hunt included Pruitt’s approaching wealthy party supporters and conservative figures with ties to the Trump administration. The individuals said Pruitt enlisted Samantha Dravis, then serving as associate administrator for the EPA’s Office of Policy, to line up work for his wife, Marlyn.

When one donor, Doug Deason, said he could not hire Pruitt because of a conflict of interest, Pruitt continued to solicit his help in trying to find other possibilities.

A spokesman for the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) confirmed that it employed Pruitt’s wife, a onetime school nurse, “temporarily as an independent contractor,” but it did not disclose via email how long she worked there or what she was paid. The spokesman said the position came about after the group received her résumé from Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society. The two organizations have financial ties.

Note: Leo is a prominent Pruitt backer and longtime friend who was involved in arrangements for the administrator’s visit to Italy last year. Taxpayers spent more than $100,000 on the trip, which included private tours of the Vatican and meals at some of Rome’s finest restaurants.

Marlyn Pruitt left the JCN earlier this year, the spokesman said, adding that the group was pleased with her work. But the search and hiring raises more ethics questions about Scott Pruitt’s use of EPA staff as well as his contacts with GOP contributors and outside allies for his personal benefit. Federal ethics rules prohibit public officials from using their posts for private gain or receiving free services or other gifts from their subordinates.

Virginia Canter, executive branch ethics counsel for the public watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said in an interview that Pruitt’s having a full-time EPA employee “become the headhunter for his spouse” was “highly inappropriate” and “would affect his financial interests.”

Pruitt already faces more than a dozen federal inquiries into his spending and management decisions at the agency, including: (1)  his first-class travels, (2) a $50-a-night condo rental from a lobbyist, and (3) the installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office.

In several instances over the past 15 months, according to the individuals familiar with those overtures, Pruitt made overtures to corporate executives and prominent Republicans whom he had met either while he was serving as OK AG or after joining President Trump’s Cabinet.

Deason told officials — including Dravis and Mitchell — that he could not hire Pruitt because his company has financial dealings in areas regulated by the agency. He agreed to brainstorm other possibilities for her, he said Tuesday, consulting with both women about potential jobs. Deason said Dravis eventually deferred his questions to Mitchell. Marlyn Pruitt worked as a school nurse in the early 1990s before focusing on raising the couple’s two children, according to Oklahoma state records and interviews with several current and former Trump administration officials.

She and her husband have a residence in Tulsa and one in Washington, and he told EPA aides last spring that he needed more money to maintain both. Current and former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said the administrator embarked on a concerted campaign to line up employment opportunities for her.

My 2 Cents: “Drain the Swamp” – ha, Trump is filling it with the likes Scott Pruitt and whole country knows it, too … so why hasn’t Trump fired him? 

Simple: Pruitt does “stuff” that Trump likes as part of being a science-denier and that sort of “stuff” – special favs for his wife – no biggie – Trump did it for Kushner and daughter Ivanka, too. 

It all fits the Trump pattern like a B&E crime: Get into government as quickly as possible; then get all you can just as quickly as possible; and get out as quickly as possible before the residents come home or wake up and find the house is empty. 

Then plead the 5th if caught and hire an expensive DC law team. 

Pruitt is a total disgrace and why GOPers are not speaking out defies logic and gravity – why is that? Hell, maybe they are cut from that same Trump cloth. Time will tell. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

And, thank goodness for the very alert and honest media for tracking and reporting on these Trump appointees and their shenanigans – kudos to the media.