WASHINGTON \u2014 House Democrats on Friday formally requested that the Justice Department investigate Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for potential criminal conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and Justice criminal division chief John Cronan, six Democratic lawmakers with oversight of Pruitt\u2019s agency allege he repeatedly violated federal anti-corruption laws by seeking to leverage his government position for personal gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As evidence, the Democrats cite Pruitt\u2019s $50-a-night lease of a Capitol Hill condo tied to a lobbyist seeking to influence his agency, directing an EPA aide to contact a senior Chick-fil-A executive as part of an effort to land his family a franchise, and a $2,000 payment to his wife from organizers of a conference the administrator then attended at taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle confirmed officials there were aware of the request to investigate Pruitt. He declined further comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox referred questions to Pruitt\u2019s outside legal counsel, though he did not respond to requests to provide the name of the administrator\u2019s defense lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pruitt acknowledged last month that friends and supporters had established a legal defense fund, which Democrats and ethics watchdogs quickly derided as a potential \u201ctip jar\u201d for polluters seeking favorable treatment from his agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday\u2019s letter was signed by Democratic Reps. Gerald Connolly and Donald Beyer of Virginia, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Ted Lieu of California. Connolly is a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and serves as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Government Operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Donald Trump signaled Friday he is still standing by his embattled EPA chief, even as Pruitt\u2019s support among other Republicans has started to erode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cScott Pruitt is doing a great job within the walls of the EPA,\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re setting records. Outside he\u2019s being attacked very viciously by the press. And I\u2019m not saying that he\u2019s blameless. But we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are now at least a dozen ongoing investigations related to Pruitt by EPA\u2019s Office of Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office and congressional oversight committees. But if the Justice Department acts on Friday\u2019s request from House Democrats, it would be the first criminal probe into Pruitt\u2019s ethical conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For his part, Pruitt sought to laugh off the controversy this week over his using government resources to seek a \u201cbusiness opportunity\u201d with the fast-food fried chicken chain whose owners are known for supporting conservative Christian causes, including outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI mean, look, my wife is an entrepreneur herself. I love, she loves, we love Chick-fil-A as a franchise of faith,\u201d Pruitt said in a TV interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pruitt last year directed his EPA scheduler to reach out to a top executive at Chick-fil-A to inquire about a \u201cbusiness opportunity.\u201d That business opportunity turned out to be Pruitt\u2019s desire to acquire a fast-food franchise for his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal ethics codes prohibit having staffers conduct personal errands and bar officials from using their position for private gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EPA travel vouchers also show Pruitt charged taxpayers last September for a $1,210 one-way flight and $669 in hotel costs to appear at a conference of a New York City-based nonprofit, Concordia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Pruitt\u2019s overture, the group hired his wife, Marlyn Pruitt, to help arrange logistics for the conference, Concordia chief executive Matthew Swift told The Washington Post. She was paid $2,000 plus travel expenses. Concordia did not return emails from the AP seeking comment, and the group\u2019s website lists a non-working phone number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic senators this week accused Pruitt of withholding records of the trip, where Pruitt also met with U.S. and international business leaders and former government officials. The senators asked EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. to investigate the agency\u2019s compliance with open-records laws in the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Virginia Canter, an ethics counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said there were a \u201cnumber of criminal conflict of interest statutes and regulations\u201d that could be brought into play by Pruitt speaking at events that he or his family had received payment for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their letter, the lawmakers make the case that Pruitt\u2019s behavior rises to the level of criminal activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the very least, we know that federal ethics laws bar public officials from using their position or staff for private gain,\u201d the Democrats wrote to Wray and Cronan. \u201cAdministrator Pruitt has certainly done just that. Further, his actions related to his wife\u2019s employment and the quid-pro-quo condo situation with industry lobbyists may have crossed a line into criminal conduct punishable by fines or even by time in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle confirmed officials there were aware of the request to investigate Pruitt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":38,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[38,106,31,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5749],"class_list":["post-23194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KENMGC634FCGDLMIUXSQKAHYYA","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/congress\/2018\/06\/08\/dem-lawmakers-seek-criminal-corruption-probe-of-epas-pruitt\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n