Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator who is perhaps the single-most corrupt member of any presidential cabinet in modern history, has been busy personally trying to ruin the reputations of former EPA aides who he felt weren’t loyal to him. Because when you are literally in bed with lobbyists, giving away our natural resources to Big Oil, Big Gas benefactors and rolling back regulations for polluters, you need loyalty from those around you, not those do-gooder types who tell the truth.
That leads to former employees Millan Hupp, the recently resigned director of scheduling and advance for Scott Pruitt, and Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff and several other departed EPA staffers. Hupp left the EPA after she testified to Congress that Pruitt asked her to do things outside the scope of her job, including the downright weird request Pruitt made to obtain a used mattress from the Trump hotel in D.C. At the time of her departure in early June, Pruitt made a glowing public statement. From CBS News:
"Millan has been a valued member of the EPA team from day one, serving an integral role in our efforts to take the [resident's message of environmental stewardship across the country," Pruitt said. "I've had the opportunity to know Millan for the last several years as a colleague, friend and trusted partner. She has done outstanding work in all of her endeavors here and will be sorely missed. I wish her all the best."
That was the public statement, but privately, Pruitt was on the phone making disparaging comments to conservative organizations in an attempt to blackball her from future employment in conservative circles. From the Daily Beast:
According to three sources familiar with the conversations, Pruitt was livid over Hupps testimony, which he felt had been particularly humiliating. And he personally reached out to allies in the conservative movement, including some at the influential legal group the Federalist Society, to insist that she had lied about, or at least misunderstood, the request for a used Trump mattress. He also stressed that Hupp could not be trusted—the implication being that she should not be hired at their perspective institutions.
And Pruitt is doing all of this on the taxpayer dime and the taxpayer time. Pruitt reportedly personally instructed his EPA staff to “ratfuck” other employees who Pruitt believed to be disloyal, employees he suspected of leaking the embarrassing details of his first class travel and overzealous, outrageously expensive 24/7 security detail.
For months, Pruitt and top aides have suspected Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff, of leaking damaging details about the administrator’s travel and spending habits to the press. Sources say Pruitt led the charge to push back against his former senior aide. And he did so by tasking communications aides with leaking damaging information about Chmielewski’s alleged misconduct at EPA, including supposed unannounced vacations and shoddy timecard practices. Chmielewski has accused Pruitt of retaliation, a charge that is now under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel.
Knowledgeable sources also told The Daily Beast that Pruitt instructed staff to pitch “oppo hits” to media outlets on other officials who departed on bad terms or were sidelined. The targets include David Schnare, a former member of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, and career official John Reeder, who Pruitt would privately call a “communist,” according to two people familiar with Pruitt’s complaints and thinking.
So, throw another Scott Pruitt investigation log on the fire. How long can such a blatantly corrupt man hang onto his position of power in the Trump administration? The way things are going? Forever. Only the Republican-controlled Congress can intervene at this point and it doesn’t appear they have any intention of acting as the check on the presidency they were intended to be.