Mired in a seemingly bottomless pit of scandals, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General, Arthur Elkins, has announced an investigation into Administrator Scott Pruitt’s condo rental from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 a night.
The confirmation was sent to Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) and conceded that the Office of Inspector General had received “multiple requests from multiple members of Congress, as well as other OIG hotline complaints, regarding these same and related issues.”
While Elkins will be investigating the condo rental, there are a slew of other spending scandals engulfing the EPA Administrator. Pruitt has also spent excessively on first-class travel, a $43,000 sound-proof booth to protect his conversations from being overheard, a 24/7 security detail that costs over $3 million, among other costly expenditures.
Per The Hill, “The [OIG] letter this week also confirmed that the OIG is additionally investigating concerns about Pruitt’s travel expenses, use of staff and expenditures for security, staff salary approvals, use of his subordinate’s out-of-office time, and reassignment or demotions of staff members seeking to comply expenses with the law.”
While Pruitt continues to embody the worst of the swamp he’s supposedly party to eliminating, the EPA’s Inspector General has an opportunity to restore a modicum of dignity to an important agency that has been hijacked by the epitome of corruption.
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