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Lobbyist tied to Pruitt's condo had roster of clients facing EPA
One of Donald Trumps sleaziest Cabinet members, Scott Pruitt sued the very federal agency he now heads (EPA) numerous times on behalf of the fossil-fuel industry when he was the Attorney General of Oklahoma. Pruitt has been dismantling the EPA and stamping out environmental regulations at a frantic pace. Under Trump/Pruitt 'stewardship', the US is now the only nation not participating in the global Paris Accords.
A rumor circulating in Washington is that Trump has been considering firing Jeffrey Sessions and replacing Sessions with Pruitt. No need to say what appointing Pruitt as USAG would portend. It's quite obvious.
Related: Scott Pruitt's landlord in controversial deal wasn't allowed to rent out room: Officials
April 6, 2018
The energy lobbyist whose wife leased a bedroom to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt last year had a roster of clients with business before the EPA, handing fodder to critics who are demanding that Pruitt be fired. J. Steven Hart, the chairman of Williams & Jensen, has said he didn't personally lobby the EPA in 2017 or this year. But plenty of his corporate clients had pending matters with the agency, the lead federal regulator governing air and water pollution nationwide, according to a Bloomberg News review of lobbying disclosures. "J. Steven Hart is a very active lobbyist who has had considerable contact with the EPA and representing numerous clients before the EPA," said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen. Top administration officials are deeply skeptical of Pruitt's explanation over how two close aides secured raises worth tens of thousands of dollars over the White House's objection, according to people familiar with the matter. And they are frustrated by the barrage of damaging headlines about Pruitt, from the condo rental to a New York Times report Thursday that aides who questioned him were shifted to other jobs.
Top administration officials are deeply skeptical of Pruitt's explanation over how two close aides secured raises worth tens of thousands of dollars over the White House's objection, according to people familiar with the matter. And they are frustrated by the barrage of damaging headlines about Pruitt, from the condo rental to a New York Times report Thursday that aides who questioned him were shifted to other jobs. Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics who resigned last year after clashing with the Trump administration, said that under the impartiality rule, Pruitt should have steered clear of all clients of the lobbyists with ownership interests in the condo. "The impartiality regulation addresses when you must recuse from matters involving a person with whom you have a 'covered relationship,'" Shaub said on Twitter. "This lease gave him a covered relationship not only with the landlord but also with anyone in the landlord's firm because the definition of 'person' includes both an individual and the individual's employer." Federal ethics laws are meant to help prevent such ethical taint. For instance, government employees are required to act impartially and prohibited from giving preferential treatment to any private organization or individual. They also are barred from accepting gifts or other items of value from people or entities seeking official action or conducting business with the employee's agency.
One of Donald Trumps sleaziest Cabinet members, Scott Pruitt sued the very federal agency he now heads (EPA) numerous times on behalf of the fossil-fuel industry when he was the Attorney General of Oklahoma. Pruitt has been dismantling the EPA and stamping out environmental regulations at a frantic pace. Under Trump/Pruitt 'stewardship', the US is now the only nation not participating in the global Paris Accords.
A rumor circulating in Washington is that Trump has been considering firing Jeffrey Sessions and replacing Sessions with Pruitt. No need to say what appointing Pruitt as USAG would portend. It's quite obvious.
Related: Scott Pruitt's landlord in controversial deal wasn't allowed to rent out room: Officials