Adding to the already towering mound of evidence that Scott Pruitt is an ethics-free zone, The Atlantic has found evidence that Pruitt was not just aware of, but responsible for, raises that went to his top aides.
In the last few days, top staffers became aware of an email exchange between one of two aides who received such a raise and the agency’s human resources division. In mid-March, Sarah Greenwalt, senior counsel to the administrator, wrote to HR in an attempt to confirm that her pay raise of $56,765 was being processed. Greenwalt “definitively stated that Pruitt approves and was supportive of her getting a raise,” according to an administration official who has seen the email chain.
Pruitt sought massive raises for two of his favorite aides who came with him from Oklahoma. Those raises were large enough that they required approval from the White House. He was turned down.
Undaunted, Pruitt determined that he could tap into money that was intended for consultants on the Clean Water Act and instead funnel it to his friends. He ordered it done. When he was caught, he took the standard Donald Trump method to handle it: bald-faced lies. In an interview with Fox News, a clearly flustered Pruitt denied being behind the raises, denied knowing about the raises, denied even knowing who had funneled these funds to pad the paychecks of his pals.
HENRY: Why did you go around the president and the White House to give pay raises to two staffers –
PRUITT: I did not. My staff did, and I found out about that yesterday and I changed it.
[...]
HENRY: Who did it?
PRUITT: There … there will be some accountability.
HENRY: Career person or political person?
PRUITT: I have to … I don’t know. I don’t know.
As sources had already indicated before Pruitt’s interview, he didn’t just know about the raises, he was their author. And now he’s been caught out lying. Again.
Not only did the original sources indicate that the entire using consultant money to reward his friends scheme was Pruitt’s idea to begin with …
After the White House rejected their request, Pruitt’s team studied the particulars of the Safe Drinking Water provision, according to the source with direct knowledge of these events. By reappointing Greenwalt and Hupp under this authority, they learned, Pruitt could exercise total control over their contracts and grant the raises on his own.
Pruitt ordered it done. Though Hupp and Greenwalt’s duties did not change, the agency began processing them for raises of $28,130 and $56,765, respectively, compared with their 2017 salaries. Less than two weeks after Pruitt had approached the White House, according to time-stamped Human Resources documents shared with The Atlantic, the paperwork was finished.
That description of events seems to be confirmed by the email chain that shows Pruitt both behind and aware of the requests.
A second administration official confirmed the exchange. The email “essentially says, ‘The administrator said that I should get this raise,’” the official told me. Both spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the private correspondence. A request for comment sent to an EPA spokesman was not immediately returned.
This is coming on top of Pruitt’s being caught living in a luxury townhouse belonging to fossil fuels lobbyists, at a “market rate” lower than Motel 6.
Earlier today, David Apol, the acting director and general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, took the extraordinary step of writing the EPA ethics officer to note his concerns about Pruitt.
As the Acting Director of the OGE, I am writing to you regarding the recently reported actions of Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, that raise concerns and may constitute a violation of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch and Executive Order 13770, and the resulting need for your agency to take action to appropriately address any violations.
The letter hits Pruitt on his living arrangements, his travel expenses and his knowledge of the pay raises.
As desperate as Trump is to keep Pruitt handy as a potential replacement for Jeff Sessions, it’s getting harder to justify ignoring his actions.