EPA Chief Scott Pruitt's corruption is a 'bottomless pit.'
White House aides are urging Trump to finally fire Scott Pruitt from his Cabinet post as the revelations of corruption continue uninterrupted.
"One official said there was recognition now that Mr. Pruitt’s problems were 'a bottomless pit,'" the New York Times reports.
Indeed, in just the last 24 hours NBC News reported that Pruitt and his two top aides spent more than $1,200 for a dinner at a five-star restaurant in Rome last year.
Politico reported yesterday that Pruitt's office took immediate action after conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt contacted the EPA and asked for help on behalf of a California county. The county is represented by the same law firm employs Hewitt.
And BuzzFeed revealed that Pruitt's excuse for spending lavishly on a 24-hour security detail — because he's allegedly been threatened so often — doesn't hold up. When the EPA's in-house investigators looked into the "threats," they couldn't find anything serious.
In fact, one of the "threats" BuzzFeed reported was an incident that involved someone drawing a mustache on Pruitt's photo on the cover of Newsweek magazine and then taping the doctored cover inside an elevator at EPA headquarters.
The case was closed due to a lack of an “overt threat” against Pruitt.
To date, the EPA has spent more than $3 million on Pruitt’s first-class travel, lodging, and around-the-clock security detail, according to the Associated Press.
And a government watchdog recently concluded that Pruitt broke the law by spending more than the amount approved by Congress for office renovations when he okayed the $43,000 installation of a secure telephone booth at his EPA office.
In what may be some sort of Washington, D.C., record, Pruitt is already the subject of at least 11 federal investigations and even some Republicans have called for his resignation.
Advisers told the Times that if Pruitt were finally pushed out, his recently confirmed deputy, Andrew Wheeler, could take over the duties with little disruptions.
Last week, four top EPA aides resigned in the span of just four days. "As many as a dozen more senior political staff members are said to be considering resigning," the Times reports.
Will Pruitt himself soon join the exodus?
