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Posted (edited)

Pruitt malfeasance not going away.

 

The $43,000 soundproof phone booth that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt had installed in his office last year violated federal spending laws, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.

In an eight-page letter to lawmakers, GAO general counsel Thomas H. Armstrong said the agency failed to notify lawmakers that it was exceeding the $5,000 limit for agency heads to furnish, redecorate or otherwise make improvements to their offices. In addition, Armstrong wrote, the agency also violated the federal Antideficiency Act, “because EPA obligated appropriated funds in a manner specifically prohibited by law.”

The EPA had argued that the $24,000 customized phone booth — which required another $18,000 in painting, concrete and electrical work to reconfigure the small closet area where it was placed — was not part of a redecoration of Pruitt’s office and shouldn’t be subject to the $5,000 cap.

Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
Posted

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/us/politics/scott-pruitt-oklahoma-epa.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

  Quote

Early in Scott Pruitt’s political career, as a state senator from Tulsa, he attended a gathering at the Oklahoma City home of an influential telecommunications lobbyist who was nearing retirement and about to move away.

The lobbyist said that after the 2003 gathering, Mr. Pruitt — who had a modest legal practice and a state salary of $38,400 — reached out to her. He wanted to buy her showplace home as a second residence for when he was in the state capital.

“For those ego-minded politicians, it would be pretty cool to have this house close to the capitol,” said the lobbyist, Marsha Lindsey. “It was stunning.”

Soon Mr. Pruitt was staying there, and so was at least one other lawmaker, according to interviews. Mr. Pruitt even bought Ms. Lindsey’s dining room set, art and antique rugs, she said.

A review of real estate and other public records shows that Mr. Pruitt was not the sole owner: The property was held by a shell company registered to a business partner and law school friend, Kenneth Wagner. Mr. Wagner now holds a top political job at the Environmental Protection Agency, where Mr. Pruitt, 49, is the administrator.

The mortgage on the Oklahoma City home, the records show, was issued by a local bank that was led by another business associate of Mr. Pruitt’s, Albert Kelly. Recently barred from working in the finance industry because of a banking violation, Mr. Kelly is now one of Mr. Pruitt’s top aides at the E.P.A. and runs the agency’s Superfund program.

At the E.P.A., Mr. Pruitt is under investigation for allegations of unchecked spending, ethics lapses and other issues, including his interactions with lobbyists. An examination of Mr. Pruitt’s political career in Oklahoma reveals that many of the pitfalls he has encountered in Washington have echoes in his past.

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Posted

Lulz.  It's always someone else's fault.

Party of personal responsibility or some such.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/climate/pruitt-epa-congress-defense.html

  Quote

As Scott Pruitt, the embattled head of the Environmental Protection Agency, prepares to testify before Congress on Thursday amid a series of spending and ethics investigations, an internal E.P.A. document indicates that he may blame his staff for many of the decisions that have put a cloud over his tenure at the agency. 

The document, known as the “hot topics” list, appears to lay out talking points for Mr. Pruitt’s two sessions before the House of Representatives. It suggests that Mr. Pruitt is prepared to say that he now flies coach when traveling; that others were responsible for giving two close aides who used to work for him in Oklahoma substantial pay raises; and that E.P.A. officials who were reassigned or demoted after challenging his spending all had performance issues. 

The document, which The New York Times has reviewed and the veracity of which the E.P.A. did not dispute, seemed to be a work in progress. Mr. Pruitt’s responses may change on Thursday when he appears before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in the morning, and a House Appropriations Committee panel in the afternoon. 

His testimony coincides with rising calls from both Democrats and Republicans for Mr. Pruitt to step aside. He has been criticized for spending more than $3 million on security in his first year in office, a figure that includes salary and overtime for his security detail of more than 20 people, some of whom have been dispatched to protect Mr. Pruitt on private trips to Disneyland, professional basketball games and the 2018 Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

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Republicans in both chambers of Congress are increasingly raising concerns about Mr. Pruitt. “They’re not good reports,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate. “He has to answer those questions. There’s a lot of stuff out there that is certainly not helpful to his or the administration’s cause.”Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the E.P.A., said in a statement that Mr. Pruitt was looking forward to discussing the agency’s efforts with lawmakers.

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Posted

 

 

WASHINGTON 

The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, announced his retirement on Monday, and his departure was driven in part out of frustration that his agency was cut out ofnegotiations with Congress over protecting so-called Dreamers, two people familiar with the situation told McClatchy.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted on negotiating with members of Congress herself and would not allow Homan, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Francis Cissna and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to be involved, the two people said.

“They weren’t allowed to go brief, weren’t allowed to be included,” said one former DHS official who is familiar with the negotiations.

Instead, Nielsen brought along her chief of staff, Chad Wolf, and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman to speak to members of Congress.

Even when lawmakers’ officers sent questions to the trio of agencies, Nielsen’s office would respond. 

Homan, 56, the latest agency chief to quit the Trump administration, had planned to announce his retirement while being honored at the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation in New York Monday night.

But ICE released a statement from Homan after McClatchy and other news outlets reported he was leaving. “The decision to leave federal service after more than 34 years is bittersweet, but my family has sacrificed a lot in order for me to serve and it’s time for me to focus on them," he said.

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Posted (edited)

If you're going to play the game stick to the chart.  Sam Clovis doesn't count.  Nor does Kelly Sadler.

Edited by TahoeHorn
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Posted
  On 5/17/2018 at 2:50 PM, thrillhammer said:
how did pruitt do yesterday?  not much buzz about it so he must have escaped the gallows.  too bad.  was hoping he'd be forced to resign.

 

We will know he resigned when a story of 10,000 stolen little hotel shampoo’s and conditioners gets reported.

  • Haha 1
Posted

I do recall reading that if/when Kelly was going to leave, his last big "thing" was getting Pruitt out.

So, look for Kelly to be gone next. By Labor Day, probably.

Posted
  On 7/5/2018 at 7:52 PM, Js1 said:

I do recall reading that if/when Kelly was going to leave, his last big "thing" was getting Pruitt out.

So, look for Kelly to be gone next. By Labor Day, probably.

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Yep. Kelly out by the end of the month

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