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Facing more than a dozen investigations into his conduct last spring, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he was starting a legal defense fund, raising concerns about the propriety of a government official raising money to fend off official investigations into potential misuse of government funds, among other improprieties.

Those suspicions have been confirmed, with the EPA’s acting inspector general, Charles Sheehan, writing in a letter to Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and other House Democrats that the inspector general’s office “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.”

Pruitt was criticized while in office for frequently trying to avoid agency regulations, while blaming career staff for his infractions.
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Beyer, who has been one of Pruitt’s most assiduous pursuers in Congress, celebrated the report’s finding as confirmation of the former EPA administrator’s inability to adhere to the rules. It is an inability shared by several other Cabinet chiefs, a number of whom have had to resign after facing questions about use of government airplanes and other matters.

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

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