EPA Ethics Official Reveals That He Urged Further Investigations On Scott Pruitt

The removals also included a payment of $ 2,000, first reported by The Post almost a month ago. The fe Ms. de Pruitt received last year to assist with logistics at an annual conference for the New York nonprofit group, Concordia, the manager said. Pruitt also spoke at the conference and introduced his wife to the group's CEO as part of a broader effort to find a job.

"To the best of my knowledge, all the questions I mentioned are in the study" Minoli wrote, adding that he had "provided" immediate and active assistance "to the Inspector General and his office. "

In a March note, Minoli had originally retroactively approved the Pruitt lease of a room in a Capitol Hill condo co-owned by Vicki Health Lobbyist Hart, saying that the favorable rate – $ 50 per night, billed only when he stayed there – was not a gift because this rate for 30 consecutive days would equate to a monthly rent of $ 1,500. Minoli described this as "reasonable market value".

But a few days later, he wrote a subsequent note saying that he was missing important facts when he assessed the lease for the first time. After the news, many EPA officials confirmed that Pruitt 's daughter had stayed at the condo for free last summer while she was working as a trainee at the White House.

"Some wondered if the use of space was consistent with the terms of the lease," wrote Minoli. "The assessment of these issues would have required factual information that was not before us and the Review does not address these issues."

In addition, EPA Ethical Officers later learned that Vicki Hart's husband, J. Steven Hart At the time of the lease, the firm Williams & Jensen had also lobbied the EPA on behalf of clients such as Coca-Cola and Smithfield Foods.

Minoli also approved several private and military flights that Pruitt took early last August from Denver to Durango, Colorado, as well as a $ 36,068 military aircraft that Pruitt and several aides took last June. at an event with President Trump in Ohio in New York to catch a flight. In Italy

In a statement released on Saturday, the EPA noted that most of the five-page letter sent by Minoli to the interim director of the EMB was only reporting on the situation. a number of administrative and personnel issues. The EPA noted that it had taken "early steps to address some of the concerns raised by the EMB well before the letter was sent last week, including the first one." hiring of two other ethics officers and continuing education in ethics.

"Part of the rest of the letter discusses cooperation with [Office of the Inspector General] a normal course of business for any agency, and the entire EPA is still sensitive to BIG and to their inquiries, "EPA EPA spokesman John Konkus said in a statement

that the EPA inspector general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. spending habits, his condo lease a lobbyist and various staff decisions.

David J. Apol, acting director of the EMB, took the unusual step in April of tellin EPA officials felt that some ethical issues surrounding Pruitt merited further examination.

"Public trust requires that all employees act in the public interest and be free from real or perceived conflict." The EPA 's Minoli responded to Apol' s letter with one of his own, noting that agencies' ethics officials "lacked authority". independent investigation ", according to a copy of the response examined by The Post. On the contrary, Minoli wrote, his office has a "long-standing practice" of referring such investigations back to the EPA's Inspector General.

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