Another 24 Hours Pass, Revealing Even More Reasons To Fire Pruitt
May 4, 2018
Scott Pruitt continues to make his case for being named the most corrupt member of the Trump administration (which says a lot). As each day passes, more and more reasons keep coming out of why Scott Pruitt should be fired. Here’s the latest from just the past 24 hours alone:
Pruitt ordered his aides to come up with excuses for him to travel to countries he hoped to visit, and then used well-connected friends and political allies to make the trips happen.
Washington Post: “After taking office last year, Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel, according to four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. Pruitt then enlisted well-connected friends and political allies to help make the trips happen.”
As a state senator, Pruitt bought a home from a lobbyist who was pushing for changes championed by Pruitt in the legislature – and Pruitt never publicly disclosed the financial relationship.
New York Times: “As a state senator in Oklahoma 15 years ago, Mr. Pruitt went even further: He bought a home in the state capital with a registered lobbyist who was pushing for changes to the state’s workers’ compensation rules — changes that Mr. Pruitt championed in the legislature. And as with the condominium rental in Washington, Mr. Pruitt never publicly disclosed his financial relationship with the lobbyist, who, like Mr. Pruitt, lived in the home when in Oklahoma City on business.”
Pruitt paid himself nearly $65,000 in reimbursements from his two campaigns for Oklahoma attorney general, raising questions about whether all were lawful.
CNN: “A CNN analysis has found that embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt paid himself nearly $65,000 in reimbursements from his two campaigns for Oklahoma attorney general, a move at least one election watchdog has sharply criticized as being recorded so vaguely that there was no way to tell if such payments were lawful.”
Pruitt's team tried to plant a damaging story about Ryan Zinke to “take the heat off of Pruitt.”
The Atlantic: “As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces a seemingly endless stream of scandal, his team is scrambling to divert the spotlight to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. … The stories were shopped with the intention of ‘taking the heat off of Pruitt,’ the sources said, in the aftermath of the EPA chief’s punishing congressional hearing last week.”