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And the Swamp Creature Award goes to.......Scott Pruitt!

OscarLevant

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More like the Lochness Monster Award, but, of course, Trump only hires the "very best people". And I thought Tim Price was bad


https://earther.com/a-running-list-of-wild-****-scott-pruitt-hasnt-been-fir-1824988928

The round-the-clock security

In the first three months as EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt racked up $832,735.40 in costs for his 24/7 security detail. That’s more than double what his predecessors, Gina McCarthy and Lisa Jackson, spent in their first three months on the job according to E&E News, which adds up since Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to ever request a permanent security detail.

Of course Pruitt deserves to be protected, but his requests have at times appeared excessive. According to a letter from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) obtained by CNN, his detail traveled with Pruitt to the Rose Bowl to watch his beloved Sooners get whupped, and Disneyland. During a six-week period, Pruitt pulled up to 36 agents into protecting him, according to the letter. Those agents would normally be working on cases involving pollution and EPA-related crime.


He’s made the American public pony up $160,000 for travel internationally, including to promote natural gas in Morocco, which isn’t even his job. He’s also regularly charged the public thousands of dollars for first class flights across the U.S., including flight ranging from $1,172 up to $3,610 to attend conferences put on by the fossil fuel and chemical industries, which again, he is supposed to regulating.

[...]


Scott Pruitt’s team explored the possibility of leasing a private jet by the month at a cost of nearly $100,000 per month according to a report from the Washington Post. The idea nixed by advisers. Probably a good call.
The sweetheart condo deal

On the occasions when Pruitt wasn’t jet setting, he spent his first six months renting a bedroom for $50 per night—well below market rate for Capitol Hill—from a fossil fuel lobbyist’s wife. The scandal has exploded and includes such lurid details as Pruitt’s daughter crashing there during her summer internship, and Republican fundraisers held in the building. But the most damning part of the whole thing is the EPA signed off on a pipeline expansion for a company that was connected with the lobbyist linked with the condo.


Nothing weird about a public official installing a soundproof room in his office at a cost of $43,000, especially when the EPA already has a secure room to discuss sensitive or classified matters.
Sweeping for bugs and installing biometric locks

Also totally normal to spend thousands of dollars sweeping said office for bugs and purchasing biometric locks.
Refusing to release his schedule

[...]

About those FOIA requests. There have been a lot of them. The EPA saw a 400 percent increase in FOIA requests last year compared to 2016, according to an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight. That same analysis showed Pruitt’s office has been particularly slow to respond, with 83 percent of cases still open vs. 21 percent agency-wide.
Giving out $120,000 for press opposition research

Pruitt has largely avoided the press outside of friendly, conservative outlets. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying to keep track of journalists. His office signed a $120,000 no-bid contract with a firm with a president billed as a “a master of opposition research” and senior vice president who took part in a campaign to shape negative opinions around Senator Elizabeth Warren through “scathing op-eds and online hot takes.” The news, first reported by Mother Jones, and ensuing firestorm around it caused the EPA to cancel the contract.
General press hostility

[...]

Trickle down corruption is real. The EPA has granted a waiver to John Konkus, one of Pruitt’s top aides, to freelance as a media consultant. The agency won’t say who his clients are, though.

Pruitt also gave two favored aids huge salary bumps of $56,765 and $28, 130 through a backdoor provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act after the White House told him not to. The Atlantic, which first reported the raises, quoted an anonymous EPA official as saying “this whole thing has completely gutted any morales I had left to put up with this place.” Which of course may just be the point.
Pre-EPA shadiness

It’s not like scandal is new for Pruitt. In his role as Oklahoma attorney general, he used a private email account to conduct state business, then lied about it in his Senate confirmation hearing.

And in a scandal that likely would’ve disqualified Pruitt from being nominated in any other administration, he once took fossil fuel industry talking points about fracking and slapped them right on Oklahoma state letterhead.

Devon Energy’s response? “Outstanding!”
 
Bullet-proof car, bullet proof reception desk, armed security 24/7, cone of silence, lights and sirens? This is the EPA! Not FBI-CIA-NSA! WTF is Pruitt scared of?
PS Special locks on doors, sweeping office for listening devices.....
Pruitt seems trying to get fired!
 
Pruitt is tRump's favorite "boy". tRump will likely keep him around until he can find another place to put him. The more eager you look to simply "stroke" tRump, the better off your chances are of sticking around in this joke of an administration.
 
I love it. The excess of government, brought to you by Republicans 'N Charge.

I particularly like the sound proof phone room/box he wanted...such transparency! Reporting on this reveals many of the whistleblowers on this are people who like his nutty/destructive policies, but cannot abide his outrageous corruption....he definitely gets that award....Lord of the Swamp Creatures.
 
I love it. The excess of government, brought to you by Republicans 'N Charge.

I particularly like the sound proof phone room/box he wanted...such transparency! Reporting on this reveals many of the whistleblowers on this are people who like his nutty/destructive policies, but cannot abide his outrageous corruption....he definitely gets that award....Lord of the Swamp Creatures.

Now it comes out that his never believable television denial in authorizing or even knowing about the big raises to two of his stop staffers was an outright lie:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-raises-washington-post_us_5ac7199ae4b07a3485e2eb9b

If this doesn't finish him....
 
Now it comes out that his never believable television denial in authorizing or even knowing about the big raises to two of his stop staffers was an outright lie:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-raises-washington-post_us_5ac7199ae4b07a3485e2eb9b

If this doesn't finish him....

I think that's nothing compared to his $50/night landlord issue...

Scott Pruitt Says His Lobbyist Landlord’s Clients Didn’t Have Business Before the EPA. They Did.

As he doggedly tries to save his job amid a mounting ethics scandal, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has insisted that there was no formal or informal conflict of interest when he rented a room from high-profile Washington D.C lobbyist, J. Steven Hart.

“Mr. Hart,” Pruitt claimed in an recent interview with Fox News on Wednesday, “has no clients who have business before this agency.”

A review of lobbying disclosure forms and publicly-listed EPA records, however, suggests that Pruitt is either lying or is woefully unfamiliar with the operations of his own agency.

Far from being removed from any EPA-related interests, Hart was personally representing a natural gas company, an airline giant, and a major manufacturer that had business before the agency at the time he was also renting out a room to Pruitt. One of his clients is currently battling the EPA in court over an order to pay more than $100 million in environmental cleanup costs.
 
I think that's nothing compared to his $50/night landlord issue...

Scott Pruitt Says His Lobbyist Landlord’s Clients Didn’t Have Business Before the EPA. They Did.

As he doggedly tries to save his job amid a mounting ethics scandal, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has insisted that there was no formal or informal conflict of interest when he rented a room from high-profile Washington D.C lobbyist, J. Steven Hart.

“Mr. Hart,” Pruitt claimed in an recent interview with Fox News on Wednesday, “has no clients who have business before this agency.”

A review of lobbying disclosure forms and publicly-listed EPA records, however, suggests that Pruitt is either lying or is woefully unfamiliar with the operations of his own agency.

Far from being removed from any EPA-related interests, Hart was personally representing a natural gas company, an airline giant, and a major manufacturer that had business before the agency at the time he was also renting out a room to Pruitt. One of his clients is currently battling the EPA in court over an order to pay more than $100 million in environmental cleanup costs.
If he was paying $50 a day for a room then he is being unfairly harassed, which would shock me not at all...that is not a problem. A room is much different than a condo or apartment or house. We do actually have a big plate of problems.
 
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If he was paying $50 a day for a room then he is being unfairly harassed, which would shock me not at all...that is not a problem. We do actually have a big plate of problems.

Are you intentionally acting obtuse? He's getting favors from a lobbiest with a far below market value rent and is compromised by pressure for that lobbiest's clients. It is very high corruption.
 
Job changes for EPA officials who questioned Scott Pruitt

At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), four of them high-ranking, were reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management of the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt.​
 
When Pruitt was state AG in Oklahoma, a group of citizens got enough signatures to put medical marijuana legalization on the 2014 ballot. It was all done correctly, and well before the deadline. Pruitt refused to put it on the ballot, claiming that his office was so understaffed that he had no time to vet the language of the proposed ballot initiative. But then, his office OK'd other initiatives that came in after the medical marijuana initiative.

Someone caught him outside a local restaurant and, in front of a few witnesses, asked him about it. He responded that we really need to end voting in this country. Those were his words, at least as reported by a local news paper that wrote up the story based on those eyewitness accounts. I happen to have heard about this because I have family in Oklahoma.
 
When Pruitt was state AG in Oklahoma, a group of citizens got enough signatures to put medical marijuana legalization on the 2014 ballot. It was all done correctly, and well before the deadline. Pruitt refused to put it on the ballot, claiming that his office was so understaffed that he had no time to vet the language of the proposed ballot initiative. But then, his office OK'd other initiatives that came in after the medical marijuana initiative.

Someone caught him outside a local restaurant and, in front of a few witnesses, asked him about it. He responded that we really need to end voting in this country. Those were his words, at least as reported by a local news paper that wrote up the story based on those eyewitness accounts. I happen to have heard about this because I have family in Oklahoma.

Holy cow if that's true.
 
Are you intentionally acting obtuse? He's getting favors from a lobbiest with a far below market value rent and is compromised by pressure for that lobbiest's clients. It is very high corruption.

I understand now maybe what this guy was talking about on how folks have gone batty over his accommodations.
 
I understand now maybe what this guy was talking about on how folks have gone batty over his accommodations.

Are you aware of basic business ethics, and security concerns from bribery, etc.? It's the core of political or corporation corruption.

And you think it's batty to be concerned about multiple, gross violations of such ethics?

I can't even pay for a business lunch, resulting from a meeting I initiated, with my big corporate clients, it's in both their ethics rules, and mine, that it would be inappropriate. We don't need to grease the wheel, because it's based on the work you do, your relationship, and your reputation....

But here's Hawkeye10, gonna drain that swamp...gonna "-BE BETTER!" by reverting back to pay for play. Good gods man.
 
If he was paying $50 a day for a room then he is being unfairly harassed, which would shock me not at all...that is not a problem. A room is much different than a condo or apartment or house. We do actually have a big plate of problems.

The issue is not the $50. It's that he is being put up courtesy of a lobbyist before his agency. Of course this isn't quite as corrupt as flying to Morocco with a bevy of others at taxpayer expense to lobby himself on behalf of the man who got him his cabinet position.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/6/1754849/-Tell-Trump-to-Fire-Scott-Pruitt-at-EPA
 
The issue is not the $50. It's that he is being put up courtesy of a lobbyist before his agency. Of course this isn't quite as corrupt as flying to Morocco with a bevy of others at taxpayer expense to lobby himself on behalf of the man who got him his cabinet position.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/6/1754849/-Tell-Trump-to-Fire-Scott-Pruitt-at-EPA

If he was paying for it then he as not "put up"....and $50 a day for a room even in Washington sounds very reasonable to me. When I was given to understand that it was $50/Day for a whole condo (or whatever I am just not that into this story) I had a different opinion.
 
Are you aware of basic business ethics, and security concerns from bribery, etc.? It's the core of political or corporation corruption.

And you think it's batty to be concerned about multiple, gross violations of such ethics?

I can't even pay for a business lunch, resulting from a meeting I initiated, with my big corporate clients, it's in both their ethics rules, and mine, that it would be inappropriate. We don't need to grease the wheel, because it's based on the work you do, your relationship, and your reputation....

But here's Hawkeye10, gonna drain that swamp...gonna "-BE BETTER!" by reverting back to pay for play. Good gods man.

I was speaking only of his $50 a night room brouhaha being silly, not anything else, kindly try to do better at tracking. That said Washington is completely broken and corrupt, has long been, and you want to tell me a story about how the Trump Crew are ruining the place??

No.
 
I was speaking only of his $50 a night room brouhaha being silly, not anything else, kindly try to do better at tracking. That said Washington is completely broken and corrupt, has long been, and you want to tell me a story about how the Trump Crew are ruining the place?? No.
No, false equivalence ain't gonna cut it. Crying that everyone is corrupt, therefore no one is OK is absurd.
Why do Democrats in office only have a fraction, if not completely 0, indictments/charges as compared to many, if not dozens, that Republicans get while in office? Dems are just better stewards.
Power corrupts...you have to work hard with transparency, checks and balances, setting a good example from leadership on down, etc....everything that Trump and the Republican congress will not do.

Please, it's so lopsided it's not even funny.
 
When Pruitt was state AG in Oklahoma, a group of citizens got enough signatures to put medical marijuana legalization on the 2014 ballot. It was all done correctly, and well before the deadline. Pruitt refused to put it on the ballot, claiming that his office was so understaffed that he had no time to vet the language of the proposed ballot initiative. But then, his office OK'd other initiatives that came in after the medical marijuana initiative.

Someone caught him outside a local restaurant and, in front of a few witnesses, asked him about it. He responded that we really need to end voting in this country. Those were his words, at least as reported by a local news paper that wrote up the story based on those eyewitness accounts. I happen to have heard about this because I have family in Oklahoma.



As AG of OK, fracking flourished, resulting in some 600 earthquakes in an otherwise earthquake free state, and as AG, he had the power to do something about it, but he didn't. Now he is director of the Every Polluter's Ally
 
As AG of OK, fracking flourished, resulting in some 600 earthquakes in an otherwise earthquake free state, and as AG, he had the power to do something about it, but he didn't. Now he is director of the Every Polluter's Ally

I was actually there when one of the stronger earthquakes they've had struck. It was downright scary, since you don't normally think of Oklahoma as having earthquakes. There's an ongoing legal battle there between the fracking companies and the people who have had their homes damaged by earthquakes. Since it takes money to get anywhere in the justice system, the result is probably a foregone conclusion...
 
I think that's nothing compared to his $50/night landlord issue...

Scott Pruitt Says His Lobbyist Landlord’s Clients Didn’t Have Business Before the EPA. They Did.

As he doggedly tries to save his job amid a mounting ethics scandal, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has insisted that there was no formal or informal conflict of interest when he rented a room from high-profile Washington D.C lobbyist, J. Steven Hart.

“Mr. Hart,” Pruitt claimed in an recent interview with Fox News on Wednesday, “has no clients who have business before this agency.”

A review of lobbying disclosure forms and publicly-listed EPA records, however, suggests that Pruitt is either lying or is woefully unfamiliar with the operations of his own agency.

Far from being removed from any EPA-related interests, Hart was personally representing a natural gas company, an airline giant, and a major manufacturer that had business before the agency at the time he was also renting out a room to Pruitt. One of his clients is currently battling the EPA in court over an order to pay more than $100 million in environmental cleanup costs.


It gets much much worse. He went on 4 day junket on the taxpayer dime, he, with several dozen of his staff, a 3x the security personal his predecessor required, 3 days of which were spent in a layover ( intentional diversion, wasnt necessary ) in Paris !

once at Morocco, the only reason he was their was to try to convince the government there to switch to a new type of natural gas, and there was only one company that made it, you guessed it, his landord of the $50 a night swamp suite, she was the lobbyist for that firm, notng that pushing energy is not in the purview of the EPA chief.

the lobbyist was a pal of Carl Icahn (he was the one who referrer her to Pruitt), the guy who did insider trading garnered from a gov post he held, appointed by Trump, and is now in lots of legal trouble.
 
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