Scott Pruitt’s Mismanagement of the EPA

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's tenure was marked by outlandish abuses of his office, from installing a secret phone booth to enlisting a fleet of SUVs to ferry him around Washington, as well as a shift towards increasing secrecy — a legacy that continues to hamper the ability of the American public to understand how major environmental policy decisions are made.

Trump administration accountability

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Background:

During his time at the EPA, former administrator Scott Pruitt was in the headlines for an increasingly outrageous series of scandals – ranging from his $50 a night lobbyist-owned condo to wasting millions on travel and excessive security. His continuous attempts to skirt ethics rules and use his position to benefit himself ultimately led to his resignation in July 2018. American Oversight had been investigating Pruitt’s questionable management of the agency for more than a year, requesting documents to expose the unethical ways that he ran the EPA. Even with Pruitt’s departure, we will continue asking for the records we are owed under FOIA.

American Oversight obtained records sufficient to evaluate how former Administrator Pruitt conducted agency business as the head of the EPA. Calendars we obtained late last year revealed that he spent his first months in office meeting with industry lobbyists rather than environmental experts or advocates.

The level of secrecy at the EPA has also been unprecedented, and Pruitt took several steps to increase security at the agency and suppress information that the public has a right to know. American Oversight is currently suing the EPA to fight back against the agency’s pattern of wrongly rejecting FOIA requests as not “reasonably described.”

Former Administrator Pruitt took every opportunity he could to use his position to his advantage and keep the public in the dark—including maintaining secret calendars. Even though Pruitt resigned in light of these scandals, our investigation into the EPA have continued.