Environment, Politics, Society

Pruitt Goes For An Even Dozen: EPA Chief Is Now Facing 11 Federal Probes Into Excessive Spending, Special Dealing, and Ethical Violations

440px-Scott_Pruitt_official_portraitEnvironmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt seems a virtual perpetual motion machine of scandals.  With 11 different federal probes into his conduct, two of his top aides quit their jobs in the middle of the investigations, according to the New York Times.  I certainly will not deny my opposition to many of the actions taken by Pruitt, who is widely viewed as one of the most anti-environmental EPA chiefs in history. However, this is not about policy differences.  Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise to reduce regulations and he is entitled to take the EPA in a different direction.  Rather this is about fundamental values of good government.  Pruitt continues to be an embarrassment in his relations with lobbyists and alleged spending of public funds — a sharp and glaring contradiction to the pledge of Donald Trump to “drain the swamp.” 

Albert Kelly, head of the EPA’s Superfund program and Pasquale Perrotta, Pruitt’s chief of security, have resigned.

In the meantime, career staff have directly contradicted Pruitt in a number of keys respects, including his earlier denial to Fox News of the excessive salary raises give to his key aides. The 11 federal investigations cover an expanding list of legal and ethical concerns over Pruitt’s conduct.   Perrotta was central to some of those allegations.

 

Pruitt seems to have an ever-expanding record of controversies involving lobbyists, including a former lobbyist arranging his controversial planned trip to Australia. 

Pruitt also received a highly beneficial deal on an apartment from a lobbyist in Washington and windfall deals on luxury homes with lobbyists before coming to Washington.

It is astonishing that the Trump Administration would continue Pruitt in this job after his appalling judgment and obvious self-dealing.

63 thoughts on “Pruitt Goes For An Even Dozen: EPA Chief Is Now Facing 11 Federal Probes Into Excessive Spending, Special Dealing, and Ethical Violations”

  1. The 11 federal investigations have truly uncovered severely damaging and embarrassing information about Scott Pruitt, raising a series of complex legal and ethical issues regarding Pruitt’s conduct. So far, leaks regarding 6 of the federal investigations have uncovered the following allegations.

    1. On March 26, 2018, Scott Pruitt did, with malice and intent, make a photocopy of a letter for a strictly personal matter. Pruit has, thus far, failed to pay back the government for this flagrant waste and fraud.

    2. On March 22, 2018, Scott Pruit did, with malice and forethought, intentionally extend a meeting beyond the one hour allocated length so that he could order pizza to be served at lunch, charging the cost to the EPA, rather than ordering out at his own expense.

    3. On February 8, 2018, Scott Pruitt did, with malice and intent, take $2.50 in quarters from the petty cash box, substituting an IOU for the shortfall, so that a visitor attending a meeting at the EPA could load the parking meter on a street nearby. Although Pruitt ultimately did reimburse the petty cash fund the next day, his actions constituted a willful and reckless felony on February 8, 2018.

    4. On March 12, 2018, Scott Pruitt did knowingly and recklessly make a change in his bowel movement habits, wherein he switched from an evening bowel movement to a post-lunch bowel movement; thereby causing additional government expenditures to be incurred based on the extra amount of toilet tissue used during working hours.

    5. On March 10, 2018, at 3:10 pm EST, Scott Pruitt did knowingly and recklessly used his EPA-provided computer to respond to an email reminder regarding a dental appointment, an entirely personal matter having no bearing whatsoever on EPA business.

    6. On March 5, 2018, Scott Pruitt did knowingly and recklessly arrive at his office five minutes late, at 9:05 am EST. Although he continued to work until 7:27 pm that day, the extra hours that he worked cannot make up for the lost 5 minutes in the morning of March 5.

    This covers 6 federal investigations completed thus far. There are 5 more federal investigations that are in progress, but the allegations involved for those federal cases are not yet known.

    Nonetheless, as is self-evident, Scott Pruitt’s days are numbered! Fiat justitia ruat cælum. (“Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”)

  2. The question that defines the Trump administration is simply: Did the fish rot from the head, or was it distributed rot from the get-go?

    I think that most of us who are not disciples of Ayn Rand or apologists for predatory fascism (yes, fascism, that’s what the alliance of government and business is called) already know the answer: it was distributed rot, in fact, previously separate chunks of rot coming together like interstellar matter coalescing to form a new star system — the Trump administration.

  3. Trump drained the swamp so crooks and con-men like his cabinet could crawl out of the ooze and take their place in Trump’s history of incompetence and corruption. It will go down in history as a time to be never repeated.

    1. Better study the history of the United States government before Civil Service.

    2. It’s about time we properly defined “The Swamp” — it is the LAW ITSELF by which WE THE PEOPLE ARE SWAMPED. If 613 laws were good enough for the Hebrew peoples in the BIBLE (and given that “human nature” has NOT CHANGED), this amount should be GOOD ENOUGH FOR US. The fact that Federal Law is FAR TOO LENGTHY (and sometimes even contradictory) is the problem. By removing two regulations for every one added, is but a start toward DRAINING THE SWAMP…. Now if we could only work on the US CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (all 50 titiles) as well as the amount of laws in the average State…. Too many laws = the SWAMP. Once we repeal them (or VIOLATE THEM as Pruitt may have) = DRAINING THE SWAMP = #MAGA. KEEP ON DRAINING, FOLKS!

  4. DONALD TRUMP SAID HE WOULD “DRAIN THE SWAMP”

    BUT SCOTT PRUITT REPRESENTS THE DEEPEST OF SWAMPS

    It is absurd to think that Pruitt ever had any intention of safeguarding the environment. From Day 1 Pruitt saw this job as a chance to serve the oil and gas industries of his native Oklahoma. And Pruitt intended to serve their interests in the style of a corporate CEO.

    Trump appointees to The Department of Education (Betsey DeVos) and Department of Interior (Ryan Zinke) are also swamp creatures. Both have made it very clear that their first allegiance is to the industries their departments are designed to regulate.

    These swamp creatures illustrate the basic gullibility of Trump supporters. Irrationally they thought a so-called ‘business genius’ was going to ‘drain the swamp’. When it was clear, all along, that the Trump Organization was a swamp onto itself; a business empire leveraged on tax breaks and bankruptcy laws.

    1. The EPA has stood for the “Environmentalist Protection Agency” for far too long. All it does is get in the way of CAPITALIST BUSINESS from being CAPITALIST BUSINESS. Anything that can be done to weaken or eradicate this neo-socialist agency IS draining the swamp — for “the swamp” is the LAW ITSELF!

  5. @JT
    “It is astonishing that the Trump Administration would continue Pruitt in this job after his appalling judgment and obvious self-dealing.”

    Two explanations suggest themselves: 1) It hasn’t yet been reported on Fox News, so President Trump wouldn’t have any way of knowing about Pruitt’s conduct; or 2) Pruitt’s conduct is perfectly compatible with President Trump’s own business ethics, so fahgetaboutit.

      1. @wildbill99 May 3, 2018 at 11:26 AM
        “Good Morning Ken, I believe you’ve nailed it.”

        Thanks, WB.

        Credit where presidential credit’s due’s my motto.

    2. The third explanation is that they’re not sold on the truth of media reports and, not being puppydogs, don’t jump when Anderson Cooper tells them to.

      1. @Insufferable May 3, 2018 at 4:07 PM
        “The third explanation is that they’re not sold on the truth of media reports and, not being puppydogs, don’t jump when Anderson Cooper tells them to.”

        Huh. Cooper must have a lot more juice in DC than I’d realized:

        “Currently there are 11 federal inquiries into Mr. Pruitt’s security practices, travel expenses and other issues like the installation of a secure phone booth at a cost of $43,000.”

        https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-investigations-guide.html

        1. I realize it doesn’t matter to partisan Democrats that any of this is, you know, true.

          1. @Insufferable May 3, 2018 at 5:20 PM
            “I realize it doesn’t matter to partisan Democrats that any of this is, you know, true.”

            Isn’t that a rather narrowly partisan assessment on your part, Insufferable?

              1. @Insufferable May 3, 2018 at 5:34 PM
                “No, just observing you.”

                It doesn’t say much for your powers of observation if you think I’m a Democrat, Insufferable.

                Do you imagine that anyone who criticizes Trump or a member of his administration is a Democrat?

                1. 1. I don’t give a damn.

                  2. If you wish to be mistaken for something other than a partisan Democrat, don’t talk like a partisan Democrat.

                  1. @Insufferable May 4, 2018 at 1:08 PM
                    “1. I don’t give a damn.
                    2. If you wish to be mistaken for something other than a partisan Democrat, don’t talk like a partisan Democrat.”

                    1. Why would I “wish to be mistaken” for anything?
                    2. If you wish to be taken for anything other than a partisan political hack, stop writing like one.

                    1. 2. If you wish to be taken for anything other than a partisan political hack, stop writing like one.

                      Your incapacity to understand someone else’s perspective is your problem.

  6. This is all a smear campaign by the various rabid environmentalists (i have a few in my family) and I hate to see Dr. Turley continue them. Read Cheryl Atkinson’s book, The Smear. It explains how the Left especially has used the ALinsky credo to smear people personnally because it disagrees with a person’s policy or politics. They have adopeted the Goebbels approach, the infamous Nazi propagandist, “A lie told once remains a lie, a lie told a thousand times becomes a truth”

    All of the information about Pruitt should all be put in context and never just made into a list. For example, the security detail was bigger because a liberal progressive tried to kill multiple Republicans with a gun while they were playing early morning baseball and that put all Republican lawmakers on high alert. Travelling with the military may actually be a cost savings to the government if military jets are being moved anyways.

    The Smear is all about taking information that may or may not be pertinent and saying it over and over again without context. For example, I have a friend who paid a million dollars for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment – in my hometown that would be outrageous! But in New York and San Francisco, that’s cheap.

      1. The only way you can get the best people to work for government (the swamp) is by DRAINING IT FIRST (perhaps a second American “Revolution” may be necessary to blow it up)….

        1. I am sure you won’t be found if it were to occur. You’d have other priorities like all RWNJ; all talk no action.

  7. Pruitt also received a highly beneficial deal on an apartment from a lobbyist in Washington

    He received a break on the rent for a couple of months, after which he was asked to leave.

    1. Upon which Pruitt did not leave leading to the locks being changed, and the husband of the condo owning couple ‘retiring early’ from the lobbying firm he was employed by.

      You never finish the story, Desperate.

  8. this is not about policy differences.

    When they say it isn’t about the money, it’s about the money.

  9. Pruitt is probably the most hated, unpopular and ineffective director the EPA has ever had. It is a question of when not if he will be gone. The man is hanging onto his well-paid cushy government job by a thread.

  10. This man is corrupt. When an official becomes so the only discussion necessary is how quickly he can be shown the door, or better yet a cell.

    1. Darren,

      Where did Mueller get his 18 Million Plus working a gov’t Job??? I know he’s a phk’in Drug Dealer/National Security Secrets Seller Tratior!

      Where did Comey get his 11 Million Plus working a Gov’t Job?? I Know where it came from, he’s another Gov’t Drug Dealer Tratior!

      Anyway, tell me more about this Okie, lol;) cause I’d love to hear it.

      1. “Where did Mueller get his 18 Million Plus working a gov’t Job??? I know he’s a phk’in Drug Dealer/National Security Secrets Seller Tratior!”

        Wow, that’s mind bogglingly off the charts stupid!

        Straight from Infowars?

        1. By Jerome Corsi | Infowars.com Friday, November 03, 2017
          12
          WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2012 Department of Justice settlement with international bank HSBC over hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal money-laundering for drug cartels and terrorist groups identified with Iran hang like a sword of Damocles over Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s indictment of Robert Mueller and Rick Gates.

          The settlement, announced in a Department of Justice press release dated Dec. 11, 2012, involved a deferred prosecution agreement in which HSBC admitted criminal responsibility for money-laundering at least $881 million through the U.S. financial system, as well as an unspecified amount of money from federally sanctioned countries including Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Libya, and Burma.

          In exchange for the Department of Justice agreeing not to file criminal indictments against HSBC’s directors, officers, or employees, HSBC agreed to pay $1.256 billion as part of the deferred prosecution agreement, plus another $665 million in civil penalties, with HSBC admitting criminal violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA).

          The Director of the FBI at that time was Robert Mueller. Robert Comey, who replaced Mueller as FBI director, was a member of the HSBC board of directors. The case was settled by Loretta Lynch, who then was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. And the Attorney General was Eric Holder.

          Just to make sure the case is clear, please understand the Obama Department of Justice allowed HSBC to pay fines to avoid facing federal criminal indictments after HSBC admitted criminal responsibility for helping Mexican drug cartels and terrorist organizations with ties to countries like Iran launder hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. banking system from foreign sources.

          https://newswars.com/hsbc-money-laundering-case-haunts-muellers-prosecution-of-manafort

          1. That nonsense was from Infowars, home of nutjob nonsense.
            I’m amazed that you’re so clueless as to use such a discredited source.

            Do you enjoy making a fool of yourself?

        2. Hillary Clinton Told FBI’s Mueller To Deliver Uranium To Russians In 2009 “Secret Plane-Side Tarmac Meeting”

          Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
          by Tyler Durden
          Tue, 06/20/2017 – 05:51
          TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint
          Authored by Shepard Ambellas via Intellihub.com,

          https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-19/hillary-clinton-told-fbis-mueller-deliver-uranium-russians-2009-secret-plane-side-ta

          https://www.infowars.com/robert-muellers-role-in-clinton-scheme-to-sell-20-percent-of-us-uranium-to-russia/

          Note: Unlike Prof Turley & others I almost never cite the Fake News sites, like The NYT & others as sources.

          1. Don’t you get it? Once you cite Infowars everyone assumes you’re a moron. It’s an automatic loss of all credibility.

            1. ” Don’t you get it?”

              Yes I & at least 200 million American Patriots get what Losers you Ignorant fools Fail to realize of whats reality, Your Hillary/Obama & Bush Commie Nazi American Hatin Trash Lost to us Trump Supporters! Get Over It! LOL:)

              Wildbill, maybe SqueekyGirl will help you learn a new song & how to dance to the latest political tune? LOL;)

              : Music/ Dance Video….. Well that Oky1 makes my Azz Burn. Well that Oky1 SOB, that Oky1 SOB makes my Azz Burn…. music… There’s something in your Commie/Fascist eyes that keep me alive, keeping me alive. The World keeps thrusting to Anti-Americans Down & Down. The World & World, the World Flushes you Down. …. Music/Dance…. Rense/Repeat… While the Oky1 makes my Azz Burn…… LOL:)

            2. We are past assuming. You have read his dreck before, did you have any doubt?

      2. Comey made good coin working in the financial sector between 2005 and 2013. Kind of curious they’d want to hire a government lawyer with zero history in securities law and no background in business, economics, accounting, or finance.

      1. When the law itself IS the swamp, those whose mission is to uphold said law are the REAL traitors to the American people….

    3. Agreed. It’s bad enough he thinks he’s heading the Environmental Destruction Agency. If he had a (D) after his name, he would already be torn to pieces and shown the door. It’s only because he’s part of the worst administration that he can survive this long.

      1. If he had a (D) after his name, he would already be torn to pieces and shown the door.

        In your dreams. Hazel O’Leary skated on similar charges.

    4. Darren,

      From Prof Turley’s NYT link:

      “Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, requested the investigation after a report that Mr. Pruitt had encouraged the coal mining industry group to urge President Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement. ”

      First that Paris Climate Change agreement is rotten for a number of reasons.

      It would have given up more US Sovereignty, like the TPP would have,

      It would be bad for the US’s economy as it shuts down our energy sources & businesses & would have forced us to buy energy from other parts of the world.

      A major key part many always leave about this Climate Change BS Scam is the reason for politicians is that people like Al Gore’s company, Blood & Gore, Goldman Sachs & many large players will make billions trading carbon credits.

      Their Climate Change Scam would not clean up the environment in the least! All it would do is take pollution from one area & transfer it to another place.

      ie: A gas or diesel car/truck burn their fuel & pollute where they are running. A electric car/truck doesn’t pollute that way, they pollute where ever the generation plant is at that charge the car/trucks batteries.

      “Meanwhile, the G.A.O. is investigating Mr. Pallone’s complaint about a National Cattleman’s Beef Association video in which Mr. Pruitt appears. In the video, produced by the lobbying organization last year, Mr. Pruitt describes his opposition to an Obama-era clean water rule.”

      On another important issue that seems lost by Prof Turley was the attempted Fed Govt Power Grab by Obama, Clintons, Bushs’, Dems & many Rinos with the Obama Clean Water Rule.

      It would have forced all citizens to give control of all Water Rights, down to even mud puddles & rain run off.

      Anyone who understands Property Rights love it when we can get the govt out of our personal business.

      So Yeah, I understand why some that would make a lot of money on govt polices the opposite to what Trump & Pruitt are putting into place.

      https://duckduckgo.com/?q=blood+%26+gore+carbon+credits&t=hy&ia=web

      1. Whatever perceived benefit that a particular corrupt official brings with them is irrelevant. Corruption is unacceptable in any candidate. The cycle of malfeasance will never be broken when voters or the system turns a blind eye to graft or undue influence in order to secure baubles a politician promises. Everyone is replaceable and if we create a meritocracy where everyone knows that a person who seeks office under nefarious designs eventually goes to jail when they abuse their power it will be significantly less likely we will suffer another scoundrel in office.

        1. I’d reserve judgment until they’ve sorted through what did happen and what didn’t. You really cannot trust the media to get it right the first, second, or third time, even when they’re not being press agents for Adam Schiff.

        2. What is often called “corruption” is good government for this basic reason: in a CAPITALIST economic system (where ANYTHING can be bought and sold), why shouldn’t politics or law be subject to the same ECONOMIC LAWS as anything else? If you can’t afford political influence, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE SUCH AUTOMATIC INFLUENCE — if you can afford it, why not take advantage of your ECONOMIC POWER?

          1. Yo, Furher, you can not be as ignorant as you sound. In your world only the rich deserve justice as they see fit.

  12. He’s just doing the same things he did in Oklahoma, What’s the big deal? Republican Senators who rushed to confirm Pruitt without waiting for the court-ordered release of his E-mails to energy companies have only themselves to blame. Never before has any administration decided to completely shelve ethics if they like his policy decisions.

    1. Pruitt was great for Okla & the USA, if you Commie/Nazi American Hating Trash don’t like it get the hell out!

      As far as I & many others are concerned Pruitt should completely eliminate the Fed’s EPA & turn it over to the States to work out with each other as per the USC..

      1. Oky1 – Straight to the personal attacks, eh? That won’t change the eleven probes and the whistleblowers coming forward saying he straight up lied to Congress. If he has no ethics and you continue to support him what does that indicate about you?

        1. One of our multiple news sources will no doubt be wrong big time.

          I’m betting on the military ones that have the big guns that I & others are urging to use all legal means first.

          We’ll see.

          BTW: Just a suggestion, get out of those sh*thole Blue State big cities. It’s a completely different free world outside instead of places like Baltimore MD that are so Rotten they’re having to bulldoze houses to get rid of the ghetto trash.

        2. You’re arguing with an Infowars idiot, enigma, my prediction is that no good will come of it.

          1. wildbill99, have you ever watched Infowars, I did a couple of times and after some very bad headaches and night sweats, I turned on FOXNEWS to ya know, kind of like a cooling off period. It did not get much better. I tried to keep a open mind to see for myself what these people see and believe, what worries me is what happens when it all falls apart for them. And it will.

            1. My theory is that these people are terrified, absolutely terrified, of the unknown. Whether it’s the future of their lifestyle, or just the type of people they don’t run across very much in BFE nowheresville. Say what you will about metropolitan living, one regularly interacts with others who look different and is able to experience the truth that people are just people. The abject fear these people have is what drives them to such outlandish beliefs and “sources” which will alleviate their fears by soothing them with “it’s all the fault of the [fill in the blank] and everything will go back to the way is was when [fill in the blank] is neutralized.”

              1. “People are just people”? Not really — each ethnic group carries its own (sub) culture with them, especially in “metropolitian living” when you have places (like parts of downtown Flushing NY) that could be mistaken for South Korea or the “Chinatowns” of both San Francisco CA and Manhattan) that put you in Beijing instead of the (American English speaking) United States of America…. In other words, a large city like NYC has so many “ethinc neighborhoods” that it almost has ceased to be an “American” city (and is, unfortunately, a “world city”). In my opinion, this “mutlicultural’ morass is what has made America far WEAKER, not stronger, because each ethnic group clings to its own people instead of a larger American nation. This is far less true in “rural America” (which is ethnically more like the America of 1776 than that of 2018); therefore, you may have a point — but for the wrong reasons! There are RATIONAL reasons for such fears among what is left of “white America” (and you should NEVER simply try to sweep them under the rug– for you do so at your peril)….

                1. It is not that bad, Fuhrer. Get out and mingle, have a shawarma, and enjoy life.

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