EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Resigns Amidst Ethics Questions
By The Blaze. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tendered his resignation on Thursday.
President Donald Trump announced in a tweet that he had accepted Pruitt’s resignation and that he thought Pruitt had done an “outstanding job.”
Pruitt has been part of the Trump administration since the beginning. He had recently faced questions about his spending habits at the EPA, which included purchasing a $43,000 secure phone booth without congressional approval, and allegedly using agency resources to find a $200,000 job for his wife.
The EPA is currently facing 13 separate federal inquiries into allegations of mismanagement and irresponsible spending practices.
On May 1, two of Pruitt’s employees at the EPA resigned during this ongoing ethics investigation. The staffers did not give reasons for their resignations. (Read more from “EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Resigns Amidst Ethics Questions” HERE)
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EPA Leader Scott Pruitt Resigns After Scandals Engulf His Agency
By CNBC. . . President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he has accepted Pruitt’s resignation. Trump said that the agency’s deputy administrator and former coal industry lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, will become the acting head of EPA.
…on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2018
The departure follows months of scrutiny that gathered momentum following reports that Pruitt had rented a Capitol Hill condominium linked to an energy lobbyist on favorable terms. The revelation exacerbated concerns about the high cost of Pruitt’s travel and security detail and triggered a flood of allegations that Pruitt fostered a culture of workplace retaliation, wasteful spending and self-dealing at EPA.
The steady flow of negative news stories prompted multiple government investigators to open several inquiries into Pruitt. His EPA now faces about a dozen probes into its spending, ethics and policy decisions.
“It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role first because I count it as a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also because of the transformative work that is occurring,” Pruitt said in his resignation letter. (Read more from “EPA Leader Scott Pruitt Resigns After Scandals Engulf His Agency” HERE)
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