The New York Times/Lisa Friedman: Expenses, Emails and a Phone Booth: The Investigations Faced by Scott Pruitt

The New York Times

Expenses, Emails and a Phone Booth:
The Investigations Faced by Scott Pruitt
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Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, faced pressure to leave his post after nearly 170 congressional Democrats supported a resolution calling for his removal.CreditSaul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Lisa Friedman
April 18, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general plans to investigate whether Scott Pruitt, the agency’s embattled chief, acted improperly when he used an E.P.A. security detail for personal trips to the Rose Bowl, Disneyland and basketball games, among other places.

The latest probe brings the number of investigations into Mr. Pruitt’s use of taxpayer money and possible ethics violations to 10.

The allegations were reported to the E.P.A.’s independent investigator in March by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has said that he based his report on information he obtained confidentially from an E.P.A. employee.

In response to the investigation, Jahan Wilcox, an E.P.A. spokesman, said in a statement that “Administrator Pruitt follows the same security protocol whether he’s in his personal or official capacity.” Mr. Wilcox said this week that Mr. Pruitt remained focused on his job in the face of the questions about his work.

Also this week, the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, found that the E.P.A. broke the law when it spent $43,000 on a secure phone booth for Mr. Pruitt. And the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget also told Congress that he intended to examine Mr. Pruitt’s spending habits.

Here is a guide to these and other investigations.
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Travel Expenses

The E.P.A.’s office of the inspector general, an independent investigating unit within the agency, opened an inquiry last summer into Mr. Pruitt’s frequent travel home to Oklahoma.

Early reports found Mr. Pruitt had spent 43 out of 92 days either in the his home state or traveling to or from there between March and May of 2017, at a cost of $12,000 to taxpayers. That inquiry has since been expanded twice: once to include Mr. Pruitt’s use of private and military flights, including to Oklahoma, and later to incorporate a four-day trip Mr. Pruitt took to Morocco in December.

Lawmakers have argued that the Morocco trip, during which Mr. Pruitt promoted natural gas exports, was inappropriate since the E.P.A. plays no formal role in overseeing gas exports. The trip cost about $40,000, according to agency records, with the flights alone costing $17,000.
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Meetings With Industry

The E.P.A. inspector general also has taken up an inquiry into a meeting Mr. Pruitt held with the National Mining Association.

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. Critics of the meeting said the discussion violated anti-lobbying laws for government officials.

Both the E.P.A. and the industry group have denied that Mr. Pruitt did anything improper.

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.

Mr. Pallone and others asked auditors to investigate whether there the promotional video involved an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
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Spending on Security

There are a number of lines of inquiry into Mr. Pruitt’s 24-hour security detail.

His security staff of at least 20 people is more than three times as large as ones for previous E.P.A. administrators. Agency officials have confirmed that the E.P.A. has spent about $3 million in taxpayer money so far on salary, overtime and travel expenses for the security team.

As of Thursday, three inspector general investigations had been launched into Mr. Pruitt’s security expenses. In addition, there is a House Oversight Committee investigation.

The newest allegations being taken up by investigators are whether Mr. Pruitt improperly used his security detail for personal travel to Disneyland and to a Rose Bowl game, as well as other destinations. Senator Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told the E.P.A. inspector general that he had been made aware of the trips “after obtaining six weeks of schedules and other documents” that detailed the travel.

Among other things, investigators are examining the role that Pasquale Perrotta, who heads Mr. Pruitt’s security, played in agency spending. Mr. Perrotta, who is widely known as Nino, has not responded to requests for comment. Investigators are also looking into E.P.A. purchases of thousands of dollars in bulletproof vests and weapons, and the purchase of a  $43,000 secure phone booth in violation of spending rules.
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Office Upgrades

The G.A.O. has already ruled that Mr. Pruitt’s purchase of a secure phone booth broke the law.

Specifically, auditors found, the E.P.A. was required to notify Congress about purchases larger than $5,000 for office renovations and that the agency also violated the Antideficiency Act, which is designed to prevent unbudgeted spending. 

But the inquiries aren’t over. House and Senate Democrats have asked Mr. Pruitt to respond to allegations by Kevin Chmielewski, the former E.P.A. deputy chief of staff, that the administrator also exceeded the office-spending limit with art on loan from the Smithsonian Institution and the framing of an American flag.
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Pay Raises for Aides

On Monday, the E.P.A. inspector general issued what is expected to be the first part of an ongoing investigation into the use of a provision of a clean drinking water law to hire ex-lobbyists and give raises to political aides.

Initial documents made public this week show that Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, signed off on substantial pay raises for two aides who previously had worked for Mr. Pruitt in Oklahoma. Two Democratic senators have asked the G.A.O. to investigate the raises as well, though that inquiry is pending the full outcome of the inspector general’s report, aides said.
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The $50-a-Night Condo

The House Oversight Committee wants to know more about Mr. Pruitt’s living arrangements last year.

The E.P.A. has acknowledged that Mr. Pruitt paid $50 per night to live in a condo co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist who has had business in front of the agency.  The E.P.A. produced a memo from the agency’s ethics office saying that Mr. Pruitt’s living arrangements did not violate federal gift rules because the rate was withing “reasonable market value.” However, the ethics office later walked back its assessment with a new memo saying that its staff did not have all the facts before issuing the ethics clearance.

That prompted the federal government’s top ethics official to take the unusual step of sending a letter to the E.P.A. asking the agency to take “appropriate actions to address any violations.”
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Science Advisory Boards

Amid the questions surrounding Mr. Pruitt’s travel and spending decisions, there is one investigation on an entirely different issue: His selection process for members of a science advisory committee.

Specifically, the G.A.O. accepted a request from two Democratic senators to look into the E.P.A.’s dismissal of scientists from agency boards that advise on health and scientific matters. The G.A.O. has said it will look into the role that political appointees at the E.P.A. had in choosing a new roster of advisers, which drew largely from industry and state regulatory bodies rather than university researchers.
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Undisclosed Email Addresses

Lastly, in recent days, a watchdog group alerted lawmakers that Mr. Pruitt had two undisclosed government-issued email addresses in addition to two that were known.

Democrats have demanded an investigation by the inspector general, although one has not been opened. 

Separately, Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, has chided Mr. Pruitt, and has asked him to explain his email use. “During your confirmation hearing, I specifically asked you to ‘refrain from taking any action — that makes it difficult or impossible for the public to access your official written communications under the Freedom of Information Act,’” Mr. Barrasso wrote to the administrator.
Correction:
An earlier version of this article used an incorrect given name for a New Mexico senator who is a sponsor of a resolution calling for Mr. Pruitt to resign. He is Tom Udall, not Mark.

Lisa Friedman reports on climate and environmental policy in Washington. A former editor at Climatewire, she has covered eight international climate talks. @LFFriedman

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