Pruitt producing an odoriferous record

[struggle4progress]

Jun 6, 2018 Updated 4 hrs ago
Roger Chesley

... Pruitt can’t keep his name, antics or questionable ethics out of the headlines. He’s an embarrassment – not just for his moves weakening safeguards for the air, water and soil, but for treating the public purse as his personal piggy bank.

Maybe the environmental chief’s problems keep the spotlight off Trump, if only briefly.

But I can’t imagine anybody else in the public sector thumbing his nose at so many rules, regulations and norms without being sent packing.

Meanwhile, two close aides to Pruitt resigned Wednesday, according to reports from several news outlets ...

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/columnist/roger-chesley/article_e1e3951a-68d3-11e8-b38e-4381c392c3b0.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Pruitt told staffer to handle another personal chore

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Published 3:01 pm, Wednesday, June 6, 2018

WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt had an agency staffer reach out to Chick-fil-A on government email about a “potential business opportunity,” emails show. The opportunity, according to one former EPA senior staff member, was exploring the possibility of a Chick-fil-A franchise for Pruitt’s wife.

It was the second disclosure in as many days of Pruitt asking agency staff to do personal tasks for him. Democratic lawmakers released a transcript Monday of an interview with a top Pruitt aide who said the EPA chief asked her to reach out to the Trump International Hotel about buying a used mattress. The aide, Millan Hupp abruptly resigned Wednesday. She told lawmakers that Pruitt had her conduct numerous personal errands.

Federal ethics rules bar government employees from using their positions for private gain and prohibit supervisors from directing their subordinates to carry out personal errands ...

https://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Pruitt-told-staffer-to-handle-another-personal-12973528.php

[Awsi Dooger]

2. 25 scandals or bust

Well within reach

[struggle4progress]

3. GOP Sen. Ernst says Pruitt did lie and is undercutting Trump

By CBS News - June 6, 2018

... The Iowa Republican’s comments came after she described Pruitt as “about as swampy as you get” earlier this week. Ernst told CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett on Thursday that Pruitt has “moved entirely away” from a letter she says he signed last year indicating he would move away from attaching renewable identification numbers to ethanol exports from the U.S. In Ernst’s eyes, Pruitt’s failure to promote the Renewable Fuel Standard equates to him failing the president and his promises, she said.

“So I do think that he did lie,” Ernst said. “He put his name to this letter and then did exactly he opposite. And that’s what I mean by undercutting our president and our president’s commitment to farmers.”

Ernst stopped short of saying the president should fire Pruitt ...

https://www.wcbi.com/gop-sen-ernst-says-pruitt-did-lie-and-is-undercutting-trump/

[struggle4progress]

4. Unending Pruitt controversies leave Republicans frustrated

BY TIMOTHY CAMA AND MIRANDA GREEN - 06/06/18 07:53 PM EDT

... “The constant drip needs to stop so that the agency can get its footing,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday.

“These other things are an enormous distraction from the important work the agency needs to do, and at some point <the EPA has> got to get its house in order.”

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee, said “questionable” decisions by Pruitt are distracting from the administration’s messaging on taxes and deregulation ...

“I think he’s acting like a moron,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who’s been an outspoken critic of Pruitt over his scandals, told reporters Wednesday ...

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/391091-unending-pruitt-controversies-leave-republicans-frustrated

[struggle4progress]

5. 'We love Chick-fil-A': Pruitt responds

By STEPHANIE EBBS
Jun 6, 2018, 6:32 PM ET

... Documents released recently and reviewed by ABC News show that Pruitt aides helped him look for an apartment, set up meetings about financial opportunities for his wife, and even shopped for a mattress, raising questions about whether Pruitt violated federal rules by asking his employees to do personal favors for him on the government's time. If Pruitt asked his aides to do personal favors for him or his family on government time it could be a violation of federal law ...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/love-chick-fil-pruitt-responds-report-franchise-wife/story?id=55670705

[struggle4progress]

6. EPA chief keeps digging hole deeper

By Philip Bump | Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Reporter Jessica Smith took advantage of access to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Wednesday to ask him about the latest in a seemingly endless series of ethically dubious actions he has taken since being sworn in. In this case, it was The Post’s report that he’d asked a staffer to contact the head of the fast food chain Chick-fil-A seeking a meeting. The conversation would not focus on, say, pollution on the part of the chicken-sandwich giant. Instead, the apparent intent was that Pruitt use the opportunity to advocate for his wife to be granted one of the chain’s lucrative franchises.

Pruitt’s response to Smith was not contrition or denial. His response was to talk about how great Chick-fil-A is ...

That Pruitt has faced no repercussions for the questionable acts that have already been revealed probably offers no incentive to change his behavior, Noble said.

“Since he clearly has no internal gyroscope on these issues, no internal guidelines, no internal sense of what’s right and wrong when it comes to ethics,” Noble said, “he’s going to keep doing this because he’s done it so many times and nothing has happened to him. There’s no reason not to do it, from his perspective” ...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/06/analysis-embattled-epa-chief-keeps-digging-his-hole-deeper/

[benld74]

7. He did similar shenanigans in OK