EPA watchdog suggests agency recover $124,000 in Scott Pruitt’s travel expenses
Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in his office at EPA headquarters.
The report also highlights the extent to which Pruitt’s official travel revolved around trips to Tulsa, Okla., where he maintained a home while a member of President Trump’s Cabinet. It noted that out of the 40 trips investigators scrutinized, 16 included “travel to, or stops in, Oklahoma” — where Pruitt maintained a residence.
There is a precedent for a Trump administration Cabinet member reimbursing taxpayers for at least a portion of costs determined to be improper: Then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price announced the day before he resigned that he had written a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for $51,887.31 to offset charter and military flights he took in 2017.
In a 2017 memo obtained by The Washington Post under a public records request, the head of Pruitt’s security detail wrote that the controversial administrator was being recognized more often in public and that those guarding him had noticed “at times lashing out from passengers, which occurs while the Administrator is seated in coach with [his personal security detail] not easily accessible to him due to uncontrolled full flights.
In other instances, the report identified instances where the agency lacked a detailed accounting for expenses or justification for some of Pruitt’s trips, such as ones with stops in Tulsa.
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