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While attending the White House’s “Media Row” event today to promote President Trump’s first 500 days in office, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was asked by Nexstar reporter Jessica Smith to explain “reports that he tried to help his wife become a Chick-fil-A franchisee,” (for which Pruitt used his position and official EPA resources, in clear violation of federal regulations).

Here is what Administrator Pruitt had to say [video link on the picture below]:

“I think with great change comes, you know, I think, opposition. I mean there's significant change that's happening for us, not only at the EPA but across this Administration, and it's needed, and, uh, look, my wife is an entrepreneur herself, I love, she loves, we love Chick-Fil-A as a, as a franchise of faith, and it's one of the best in the country, and so, that's something we were very excited about… So, and we need more of them in Tulsa and we need more of them across the country… So anyway it's an exciting time.”

The Washington Post, which first reported Pruitt’s attempts to obtain a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife using official resources, also reported:

       “He also approached the chief executive of Concordia, a New York nonprofit. The executive, Matthew A. Swift, said he ultimately paid Marlyn Pruitt $2,000 plus travel expenses to help with logistics for the group’s annual conference in September.”

Politico further reported on this previously undisclosed-arrangement:

       “After Pruitt tried to set his wife up with a Chick-fil-A franchise and successfully landed her a $2,000 gig organizing the New York nonprofit Concordia's annual summit where he was a speaker, he also agreed to a meeting brokered by the group's boss. Concordia chief executive Matthew Swift, who told The Washington Post he paid for Marlyn Pruitt's work and travel expenses, met personally with Pruitt the week after the event in September, according to EPA records. And then he asked scheduler Millan Hupp to set up a meeting with Nate Morris, a friend and CEO of Rubicon Global, a Georgia-based waste and recycling company, according to emails obtained by the Sierra Club.

       "As discussed, I think it would be great for Nate and the Administrator [to] get together and Nate would be happy to come to Washington to meet," Swift wrote in an email introducing Morris to Hupp, adding that "Millan is a good friend and I have gotten to know her and the Administrator over the last few years." EPA records show Pruitt attended that meeting with Rubicon on Oct. 18. Pruitt also met again with Concordia in February. Asked whether EPA leaders had ethics officials review the arrangements and what the meetings were about, spokesman Jahan Wilcox said, "EPA declines to comment."

       Pruitt also planned a number of undisclosed meetings while at the September summit, according to EPA staff emails. Among others, Pruitt met with financier T. Boone Pickens and Andrew Littlefair, co-founders of natural gas transportation company Clean Energy, and Concordia leadership council members George Logothetis, a Greek shipping magnate…”