Scott Pruitt wanted a used mattress from TRUMP hotel – and used a government aide to help him shop

Embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt used an aide to help him shop for a used luxury mattress at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

He tasked aide Millan Hupp, his director of scheduling and advance, with helping him purchase a Trump Home Luxury Plush Euro Pillow Top mattress. 

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.

Scott Pruitt is under fire for multiple questionable uses of tax payer money during his tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency

Pruitt staffer Millan Hupp was tasked with helping him purchase a used luxury mattress, among other unusual duties

Pruitt staffer Millan Hupp was tasked with helping him purchase a used luxury mattress, among other unusual duties

Her unusual duties were outlined in a letter, obtained by The Washington Post, from two of the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah Cummings and Gerry Connolly, to the panel’s Republican chairman Trey Gowdy.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating Pruitt’s management of the agency.

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.  

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. 

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.

SCOTT PRUITT’S SCANDALS IN BRIEF 

 

Ex-Oklahoma attorney-general Scott Pruitt had never lived in Washington D.C. until he became EPA Administrator last year. But his scandals now include how he:

  • Paid just $50 a night to stay in a condo owned by an energy lobbyist’s wife but only when he was in town (and called it ‘market rent’);
  • Had his door battered down by Capitol Hill Police because he wasn’t responding and claimed he was ‘napping’ – on a weekday afternoon; 
  • Allegedly demanded flashing lights and sirens to get through traffic because he was late for dinner;
  • Also allegedly demanded a bulletproof SUV with run-flat tires  – and a bulletproof desk;
  • Got a desk ‘bigger than the Resolute’ and a soundproof phone booth to stop officials hearing his calls; 
  • Had his security chief reassigned, allegedly for questioning his demands;
  • Allegedly had other officials moved or reassigned for questioning his spending; 
  • Claimed to know nothing about pay raises given to two key aides he brought with him from Oklahoma; when the White House turned them down, officials found a loophole;
  • Booked private jet flights and got authorization afterwards when it was too late to turn them down;
  • Used flights through hubs so he could then get home to Oklahoma more cheaply from there; 
  • Got first class flights, with officials claiming he had ‘threats’ and needed to be kept from ordinary passengers – but only concrete example was someone shouting ‘you’re f***ing up the environment’ in Atlanta Airport; 
  • Officials looked into getting him $100,000 a month private jet from NetJets;
  • His spokesman falsely claimed he had a ‘blanket waiver’ to fly in first;
  • Missed a flight en route to Morocco and spent a day and a night in Paris instead;
  • Took his round the clock security detail on his vacation to the Greek islands and Turkey;
  • When he was questioned about his $50-a-night deal by Fox News said it was ‘unfair to ask.’
  • Used an aide to help him shop for a used luxury mattress at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

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.’



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