Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s is facing fresh allegations that he abused his power and taxpayer resources following a revelation that he used his government position to secure a source of income for his wife.
Pruitt approached conservative non-profit Concordia and fast food company Chik-fil-A about gigs for his wife, Maryln, The Washington Post reported.
In the case of Chik-fil-A, the Trump administration official had his scheduler set up a call with the head of the company for the purpose of discussing a ‘potential business opportunity.’ In a subsequent conversation, Pruitt brought up his wife’s desire to open up a Chik-fil-A franchise.
Mrs. Pruitt started but did not finish the paperwork, a spokesperson for the company told The Post.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s is under fresh scrutiny for abuse of power and taxpayer resources following a revelation that he used his government position to secure a source of income for his wife.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday afternoon that she had not talked to President Trump about the latest blow to Pruitt’s credibility. She said as she did on Monday when DailyMail.com asked about Pruitt that the White House would look into the charges.
‘I haven’t had a chance to speak with the president directly about the Washington Post’s new report,’ Sanders told a reporter. ‘We continue to have concerns and look into those and we’ll address them.’
A day prior Sanders said the White House was looking into a claim from two Democratic members of Congress that Pruitt used a government aide to help him shop for apartments and for a used luxury mattress at President Trump’s Washington hotel.
‘Certainly looking into the matter,’ Sanders said during a White House briefing, quipping: ‘I couldn’t comment on specifics of the furniture used in his apartment.’
The two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had made the revelation in a letter that outlined the unusual duties of taxpayer-funded scheduling assistant Millan Hupp.
That letter was obtained by The Washington Post, which also revealed Hupp’s role in the Chik-fil-a set up.
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly wrote to the panel’s chairman, South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, demanding that he issue a subpoena for EPA records.
The Oversight committee is investigating Pruitt’s management of the agency.
Two Republican senators have since joined in on the Pruitt bashing – but for another reason.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told reporters that Pruitt had betrayed the president’s position on ethanol.
The state’s junior Sen. Joni Ernst as hit Pruitt with a slam that he’s ‘about as swampy as you can get’ in Washington.
Their complaints, plus the Washington Post’s reporting, prompted new questions about Pruitt’s position.
Scott Pruitt is under fire for multiple questionable uses of taxpayer money during his tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency; Pruitt staffer Millan Hupp (right) was tasked with helping him purchase a used luxury mattress, among other unusual duties
‘Certainly looking into the matter,’ Sanders told DailyMail.com on Monday about Pruitt’s situation, quipping: ‘I couldn’t comment on specifics of the furniture used in his apartment’
Pruitt directed Hupp, his director of scheduling and advance, to help him purchase a Trump Home Luxury Plush Euro Pillow Top mattress, according to Cummings and Connolly.
A standard queen version of the luxury mattress, without a box spring, costs $1,399 before tax and shipping. A standard king costs $1,750.
It was one of many unique tasks Hupp performed for her boss, which saw her scout apartments in D.C. neighborhoods and arrange his family vacation to California over the New Year’s holiday so the Pruitts could watch the Oklahoma Sooners play in the Rose Bowl.
Hupp’s sister, Sydney, is the one who set up a call for her boss with Chik-fil-A exec Dan Cathy.
‘The subject of that phone call was an expression of interest in his wife becoming a Chick-fil-A franchisee,’ representative for the company, Carrie Kurlander, told The Post.
Pruitt personally approached Concordia head Matthew Swift about his wife, the news outlet reported, and the conservative group ultimately paid the EPA administrator’s wife $2,000 to organize the non-profit’s annual conference. Concordia also covered her travel expenses.
Pruitt is under fire for multiple questionable uses of tax payer money during his tenure at the EPA, including $3.5 million on his own security, $10,000 to redecorate his office, using his security detail’s flashing lights and sirens to make a dinner reservation at a posh D.C. restaurant, and and building a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office.
Millan Hupp described her work in an interview with congressional investigators as including an array of personal tasks, including booking non-work flights with Pruitt’s personal credit card.
Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. opened in September 2016, but its brisk business appears to have resulted in cast-off mattresses already
She said she remembered Pruitt ‘has spoken with someone at the Trump Hotel who had indicated there could be a mattress he could purchase, an old mattress he could purchase,’ and that the administrator ‘had expressed interest in securing a matter’ to her.
Hupp said she did not recall if Pruitt got his bedding but asked to confirm that ‘it was not for use at EPA,’ she replied, ‘Not to my knowledge.’
The Trump International Hotel does allow guests to buy Trump-branded furnishings, but it does not appear to sell used mattresses. A receptionist referred a Post reporter to Tempur-Sealy corporate offices, which sells the same ones used at the Trump Hotel by mail order.
Hupp has been at the EPA since March 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile, and before that was a political consultant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Barely three years ago, she worked at an Embassy Suites hotel near the Nashville airport.
She now makes $114,590 in Pruitt’s personal office, The Washington Post reported in April. She got a 33 percent raise after the 26-year-old staffer oversaw an extensive housing hunt for Pruitt.
At times, she did this work office hours, a former EPA employee and others who interacted with her told the Post. Ethics experts say that kind of activity constitutes a violation of federal rules.
Pruitt told a House panel Hupp performed the apartment hunt ‘on personal time,’ but she told investigators she did some of it during work hours and used her official agency email at times in her search.
She said she was not compensated for this service.
Pruitt is under investigation for renting a Capitol Hill condo — for which he paid $50 a night whenever he was in town – from a lobbyist who worked on energy issues.
She was also protective of Pruitt’s public image.
In May, Hupp insisted that a town hall event in Nevada, Iowa, for farmers, that was open to press and the public, should not include any questions from the audience.
Organizers objected that the event was marketed to the public as a townhall meeting.
‘With a crowd of 300 people plus open press, we have to stick with the questions we currently have,’ Hupp replied via email.
Pruitt described Hupp in his congressional testimony as ‘a longtime friend,’ and she told investigators ‘I would consider him a friend of mine, yes.’
But federal rules bar a federal employee from making ‘a donation or a gift to an official superior’ and bar a federal official from accepting ‘a gift from an employee receiving less pay than himself.’
Asked if she took leave from work when she occasionally looked at apartments during office hours for Pruitt and his wife, Hupp told committee staffers, ‘I did not.’