On Tuesday, the President announced that he had accepted EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s (previously the Attorney General of Oklahoma) resignation. According to Pruitt, it’s been difficult to do his job since the recent “onslaught of scandals,” saying, “…the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.”1 (Aww, poor guy. Are people being mean to you because you are allowing corporations to destroy our planet at an unprecedented and accelerated rate?)
There are currently more than a dozen investigations into of his use of staff, VIP travel, and efforts to gain perks and boost his household income.
The President said,
“Scott Pruitt did an outstanding job inside of the EPA. We’ve gotten rid of record-breaking regulations and it’s been really good. You know, obviously the controversies with Scott, but within the agency we were extremely happy.” note]Daily Mail, July 5, 2018.[/note]
So what exactly has he been accused of? Take a look at the very long list of questionable behavior by the government employee:2
Paid just $50 a night to stay in a condo owned by an energy lobbyist’s wife but only when he was in town (and called it ‘market rent’);
Had his door battered down by Capitol Hill Police because he wasn’t responding and claimed he was ‘napping’ – on a weekday afternoon;
Allegedly demanded flashing lights and sirens to get through traffic because he was late for dinner;
Also allegedly demanded a bulletproof SUV with run-flat tires – and a bulletproof desk;
Got a desk ‘bigger than the Resolute’ and a soundproof phone booth to stop officials hearing his calls;
Had his security chief reassigned, allegedly for questioning his demands;
Allegedly had other officials moved or reassigned for questioning his spending;
Claimed to know nothing about pay raises given to two key aides he brought with him from Oklahoma; when the White House turned them down, officials found a loophole;
Booked private jet flights and got authorization afterward when it was too late to turn them down;
Used flights through hubs so he could then get home to Oklahoma more cheaply from there;
Got first class flights, with officials claiming he had ‘threats’ and needed to be kept from ordinary passengers – but only concrete example was someone shouting ‘you’re f***ing up the environment’ in Atlanta Airport; (government officials are expected to fly economy)
Officials looked into getting him $100,000 a month private jet from NetJets;
His spokesman falsely claimed he had a ‘blanket waiver’ to fly in first;
Missed a flight en route to Morocco and spent a day and a night in Paris instead;
Took his round the clock security detail on his vacation to the Greek islands and Turkey;
When he was questioned about his $50-a-night deal by Fox News said it was ‘unfair to ask.’
Used an aide to help him shop for a used luxury mattress at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Used 24/7 security detail to pick up dry cleaning and help him shop for lotion
Had aides keep ‘bad’ information off his official schedule
Asked a top aide to help get his wife a $200,000 job
Sought to use contacts to get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise
Asked an aide to get him a used mattress at a Trump hotel in Washington
Spoke to Trump about becoming attorney general in midst of Russia probe
Kevin Chmielewski, who came to EPA from the Trump campaign, said Pruitt’s aides would “print sections of the private calendar, gather around a table, and decide what would be omitted or altered,”3 often under Pruitt’s direction.
“A review of EPA documents by CNN found discrepancies between Pruitt’s official calendar and other records with more than two dozen meetings, events or calls being omitted from Pruitt’s public calendar.
For example, Pruitt’s public EPA schedule shows that his final meeting for the day of April 26, 2017, was with Australia’s environmental minister, but an internal calendar shows that later the same day he attended a dinner at the BLT Prime restaurant inside Trump International Hotel hosted by coal producer Alliance Resource Partners and its CEO, Joseph Craft.
Craft, who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and has given millions more to mostly Republican candidates and committees, has advocated for the rollback of former President Barack Obama’s coal-industry regulations.
If the allegations about the secret calendar are true, the practice of altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either ‘falsifying records’ or hiding public records, according to legal experts interviewed by CNN.”4
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D) said in a statement, “Scott Pruitt’s petty grifting and pervasive corruption are known far and wide, but it will take generations to fully reverse the widespread harm he inflicted on our air, our water, and the health of our people.”5
Erin Elizabeth is a long time activist with a passion for the healing arts, working in that arena for a quarter century. Her site, not even six years old cracked the top natural health sites within the first year of its inception. She is an author, public speaker, and has recently done some TV and film programs for some of her original work which have attracted international media coverage. Erin was the recipient of the Doctors Who Rock Truth in Journalism award for 2017. You can get Erin’s free e-book here and also watch a short documentary on how she overcame vaccine injuries, Lyme disease, significant weight gain, and more. Follow Erin on Telegram, Twitter, and her other social media platforms.
