Press Releases

The Acting Inspector General (IG) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today informed Rep. Don Beyer and other House Democrats that neither disgraced former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt nor his private attorney ever consulted the EPA Ethics Office regarding his legal defense fund. The OIG letter was written in response to a series of questions about Pruitt’s legal defense fund raised last year by Beyer and Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Many of those questions remain unanswered.

EPA Acting Inspector General Charles Sheehan wrote (emphasis added):

“On June 13, 2018, the OIG responded to your request by stating that the concerns raised in your letter should be addressed by EPA ethics officials or the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. We recently followed up with the EPA Office of General Counsel’s (OGC’S) Ethics Office to see whether a determination has been made regarding Mr. Pruitt’s personal actions to establish a legal defense fund, and whether the fund complied with ethics rules.

“The OGC’s Ethics Office Informed the OIG that it never had a conversation with Mr. Pruitt or his private attorney about the existence or establishment of a legal defense fund. In addition, no advice was given to Mr. Pruitt about the matter while he worked at the EPA. Based on this information and since Mr. Pruitt left the agency, no further OIG action is warranted.”

Rep. Beyer issued the following statement in response:

“What we know about the Trump Administration’s contempt for ethics rules designed to prevent corruption keeps getting worse.

“In December we learned that the owner of a company in an industry regulated by the EPA made a donation of $50,000 in cash to then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s legal defense fund. That donation was not vetted by EPA ethics officials, and now we know that Pruitt never sought advice on this or any other donation to his legal defense fund from their office.

“While he ran the EPA, Pruitt accepted large sums of money to pay expenses he would otherwise have paid out of his own pocket without any discussion with the officials at his agency whose job it is to identify potential ethical conflicts in such donations. Such behavior by a senior government official gives the appearance of selling influence, and is an unacceptable violation of the public trust.

“Unfortunately, Pruitt’s successor, Andrew Wheeler, has had ethical conflicts of his own, as has Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. All of these problems ultimately arise from a President who appoints coal and oil lobbyists to run federal agencies, who flouts norms related to his own business conflicts and continues to accept foreign emoluments, and who just yesterday promised to veto ambitious anti-corruption legislation.

“Donald Trump has presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in American history, and finds new ways to break his promise to ‘drain the swamp’ every day.”

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt acknowledged the existence of his legal defense fund in an exchange with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) during a May, 2018 Senate hearing. Beyer and his colleagues wrote two letters soon afterwards seeking information about the parameters of that fund, and were referred to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and the EPA Ethics Office. OGE did not respond directly to their inquiry, but issued guidance reminding federal employees “that they should seek ethics advice before accepting a gift to pay for legal expenses.” That guidance also noted that “agency ethics officials” should review donations “to determine if any of the gifts appear to be from prohibited sources.”

Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) recently pressed Pruitt’s successor, Administrator Andrew Wheeler, for details on Pruitt’s legal defense fund, including questions about EPA ethics review. Rep. Beyer also sought an investigation into Wheeler’s own ethical conflicts soon after Wheeler was named Acting EPA Administrator in July of 2018.

The letter from the EPA Office of the Inspector General is available here.