EPA Inspector General has multiple investigations into Scott Pruitt's activities

The corruption in Scott Pruitt's short term as head of the Environmental Protection Agency sort of boggles my mind.   After President Trump's praise for the man and the "job he's doing," I was relieved to learn that the Inspector General of the EPA has at least five investigations ongoing into its chief.

According to an Associated Press report, IG Arthur Elkins "is now conducting at least five investigative audits related to Pruitt, including a previously undisclosed probe into outsized spending and alleged timesheet abuse by his swollen security detail."

Far more than other cabinet secretaries, and with no greater security reason than what appears to be a paranoid character, Pruitt has a full-time, 20 member security force to provide day and night protection.   The tab to the taxpayers for this alone in his first year amounted to close to $3 million.  A separate report said his predecessor had four or five, part-time security people.

Elkins has also opened an audit into whether Pruitt improperly used authority to grant massive pay raises to two of his closest staff aides.   There are also ongoing investigations into his infamous $43,000 soundproof phone booth, installed in his own office.   (Paranoia doesn't come cheap, when it's somebody else's money, like taxpayers.)

All of this is plenty to get him fired, but what I'm more interested in having examined are his multiple corrupt uses of his office to do business favors for the lobbyist who rented him that single room for $50/night.

The townhome that is the subject of this little scandal is owned by the wife of a lobbyist who represents major natural gas interests.   Two examples of returned favors:

1.  Pruitt approved the extension of a natural gas pipeline (I suppose the EPA had to approve it from the environmental impact standpoint), the owner of which is represented by the lobbyist whose wife owns the famous $50/night condo room.

2.  Somewhat later on, Pruitt took a lavish trip to Morocco with a staff of seven (and an unspecified number of security detail) -- all travelling first class.   They had a layover in Paris and spent a great night on the town.   Then missed their flight to Morocco the next morning and, darn it, had to spend another night in Paris.    What was supposed to have been a four day stay in Morocco got shortened to two;  but the business got done, even though it doesn't sound like government business that taxpayers should have funded.

What was the business?   A major lobbying effort with the head of the Moroccan government to strike a business deal for natural gas with a United States private company.  Now why was the EPA head doing international lobbying to promote natural gas sales?   That is not in his job description, for sure.   He's supposed to be more concerned with how we get it out of the ground and what we do with it then -- and how that affects the environment.   Not selling it to foreign investors to benefit private corporations.

Well, it turns out that there were two connections for Pruitt.   First, Carl Icahn, the iconic hedge fund manager, whom Trump idealizes and who, briefly, was a member of the Trump White House as some sort of regulatory consultant, got the final approval say-so in Trump's hiring of Pruitt for the EPA job.   In other words, as it has been reliably reported, Trump was ready to hire Pruitt but told him he needed to have one more meeting.  And it was with Icahn, who gave his approval, and then Pruitt was hired.  So Pruitt owes his hiring to Icahn.

Second, who owned what was at the time the only company that had the ability to convert natural gas to the form it could be shipped overseas?    Carl Icahn is the major stockholder in the only such company.

Third,  who  was the lobbyist who represented this same natural gas company?   You guessed it.    The husband of the owner of the condo where Pruitt got his sweetheart pad.

I suspect a deep discount on a bedroom was not the only perk that Pruitt got out of this deal.  More likely to be revealed later.

Is this not a corrupt individual who should have no place in our government?   And this doesn't even begin to address what Pruitt is doing to kill every environmental protection regulation he can.   Pruitt's got to go.

Ralph

PS:  Late yesterday, the New York Times learned that the Acting Head of the Office of Government Ethics, David Apol, has called on the EPA's top ethics official to investigate Pruitt's activities.   His letter states:  "The success of our government depends on maintaining the trust of the people we serve. . . .  The American public needs to have confidence that ethics violations, as well as the appearance of ethics violations, are investigated and appropriately addressed.'