ABC News has an exclusive interview with former EPA deputy chief of staff Kevin Chmielewski in which Chmielewski says that Pruitt lied to Congress concerning firing EPA workers who questioned his lavish spending.
A whistleblower from the Environmental Protection Agency says that Administrator Scott Pruitt was "bold-faced" lying when he told members of Congress that no EPA employees were retaliated against for raising concerns about his spending decisions. […]
Chmielewski said chief of staff Ryan Jackson called him into his office and said: "Hey — Administrator Pruitt either wants me to fire you or put you in an office so that he doesn't have to see you again,” Chmielewski told ABC News adding that "And in addition to that, he wants to put Millan (Hupp) in your spot, as your title and your pay grade."
Millian Hupp is one of Pruitt’s pals—the one who got a massive raise after spending her time on very important issues.
The pay hike came after the 26-year-old staffer oversaw an extensive housing hunt for the administrator last year. Hupp at times conducted the search during office hours, according to a former EPA employee and others who interacted with her, activity that ethics experts said constitutes a violation of federal rules.
But leapfrogging his friends over longtime employees is far from the only thing that Pruitt has done. According to Chmielewski, it appears that someone at the EPA has forged documents to try and protect Scott Pruitt’s lies.
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The EPA declined to comment in response to questions about Chmielewski’s allegations against Pruitt and his staff. ABC News obtained a personnel form filled out by an EPA HR officials that says he resigned on March 17.
The form is not signed by Chmielewski, who says he was actually forced to leave a month before that date.
“Resigned” is definitely not how the former deputy chief of staff put the situation.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Kyra Phillips, former deputy chief of staff Kevin Chmielewski said he was "100 percent" forced out after raising concerns about Pruitt's spending on first-class travel.
But lying about forcing staffers to leave, and covering up his actions, are far from the only lies Pruitt told to Congress. He also completely misrepresented the “security concerns” that he says forced him to fly first class.
In two separate hearings Thursday, Pruitt presented to lawmakers a “threat assessment” that he said came from Inspector General Arthur Elkins detailing various death threats against him. …
“The memo that he read from was not from Inspector General Elkins. It was an internal memo from Assistant IG for Investigations Patrick Sullivan,” OIG spokeswoman Kentia Elbaum said in a statement.
At that hearing, Pruitt admitted that he did know about the raises offered to two staffers, reversing earlier statements, but continued to deny that he knew either how those raises were to be given—using money set aside for environmental consultants—or the amounts of the raises. He also blamed the purchase of a $43,000 soundproof booth for his office on “career individuals” at the EPA.