Can Scott Pruitt Poison the Environment Enough to Save His Job?
Bess Levin, Vanity Fair April 5, 2018
The future of Trump’s favorite polluter looks hazy.
The past couple months have been less than ideal for pollution enthusiast Scott Pruitt. At first, headlines about his expensive (taxpayer-funded) travel habit were mostly indistinguishable from similar scandals plaguing other Trump administration Cabinet members. More recently, however, negative stories about the anti-E.P.A. administrator have been tumbling out of his agency on a near daily basis. In the past week alone, we learned that Pruitt was living in a top lobbyist’s D.C. townhouse for just 50 bucks a night—when similar accommodations would have set him back several multiples of that rate—and just happened to approve a deal for one of his landlord’s water-polluting clients to expand a pipeline project after it had the distinction of receiving the second-biggest fine in the history of the Clean Water Act. On Monday, word leaked to The Washington Post that Pruitt’s staff had considered leasing a $100,000-a-month private jet to accommodate his luxe “travel needs”; on Tuesday, sources whispered to The Atlantic that Pruitt had bypassed the White House to give substantial pay raises to two of his closest aides.
Up until recently, it appeared that Pruitt’s job, if not safe, was at least as secure as anyone else’s in an administration in which casual corruption is a venial sin and job security hinges on the whim of a mostly unhinged president. By Wednesday, however, the White House’s stance on the Pruitt Situation seemed to have shifted markedly. For the first time, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said publicly that “The president’s not” O.K. with the E.P.A. chief‘s actions. She also declined to confirm reports that Trump rang up Pruitt in recent days to offer support. “We’re reviewing the situation. When we have had the chance to have a deeper dive on it we’ll let you know the outcomes of that,” Sanders added. “But we’re currently reviewing that here at the White House.” To those familiar with the roundabout way that Donald Trump slowly exfoliates aides who become irritants, the chilly response looked like a kiss of death.
Perhaps recognizing the gravity of his situation, Pruitt attempted to control the damage Wednesday, with mixed results. “I’m dumbfounded that that’s controversial,” he told the Washington Examiner, referring to his lobbyist-sponsored living situation. Asked by Fox News if the arrangement contradicted Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp,” Pruitt acted shocked: “I don’t think that that’s even remotely fair to ask that question.” In other interviews, he suggested that the leaks are part of a liberal plot against him, with his enemies willing to “resort to anything” to stop him from deconstructing Obama’s environmental regulatory regime. Speaking to The Washington Times, Pruitt said he was under attack by a “bastion of liberalism,” which apparently forced him to sign a rental agreement that virtually anyone could’ve told him was ethically problematic at best. In Axios, an unnamed Pruitt defender appeared to channel his view of the world, telling the outlet that “this is really about ideology, driven by folks on the left who don’t like” his agenda, and that the bad press is allegedly coming from a recently dismissed political appointee. (That person, when contacted by Politico, denied the accusations and suggested that the E.P.A. is trying to deflect attention by attacking people who have questioned Pruitt’s decisions.)
Over at the White House, Chief of Staff John Kelly is said to be extremely miffed he wasn’t warned in advance that Trump’s E.P.A. head was a ticking time bomb, telling Pruitt in a phone call that “the flow of negative and damning stories needed to stop.” “[It] was not a friendly buck-up call at all,” is how one administration official described the chat to the Daily Beast. Yet for all the major lapses in judgment—practically a job requirement for Trump staffers, given their track record—Pruitt still has one thing going for him: he’s been the most “effective” member of Trump’s Cabinet, which in this case means he’s proven especially adept at gutting the agency he was tasked with running 14 months back. Trump may not appreciate the negative attention Pruitt is getting—and he certainly hates the positive attention, such as a New York Times headline last month, “Scott Pruitt, Trump’s Rule-Cutting E.P.A. Chief, Plots His Political Future”—but he loves what Pruitt has done for his industry pals. “As long as [Trump] feels Pruitt is effective and on his side, he’s probably fine,” one source close to the administration told the Daily Beast.
Pruitt, for his part, made sure to lay things on particularly thick while announcing the rollback of Obama’s car emissions rules this week. “This president has shown tremendous courage to say to the American people that America is going to be put first,” he said at the gathering. With the rollbacks, Pruitt added, “the president is again saying America is going to be put first.” Time will tell whether Pruitt is still around by the time those rules go into effect.
Top EPA staff who criticized Scott Pruitt were either demoted or reassigned
A glimpse into how Pruitt dealt with his critics.
By Kyla Mandel April 5, 2018
The scandals surrounding EPA administrator Scott Pruitt continue to grow. Credit: Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Five top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees were either placed on leave or reassigned after raising concerns about Administrator Scott Pruitt’s spending and management habits.
The news, revealed by the New York Times on Thursday afternoon, shows high-ranking EPA officials repeatedly raised concerns about Pruitt’s exorbitant spending on first-class travel and office furniture, as well as certain demands made for increased security coverage, including expanding his protective detail to 20 people.
The revelations add to a growing picture that numerous officials within the agency were aware of, and voiced their objection to, Pruitt’s ethically questionable habits. And yet, nothing appears to have been done to change course. Instead, critics were demoted.
Kevin Chmielewski, a Trump administration political appointee, was placed on administrative leave without pay after bringing his concerns about Pruitt’s conduct directly to the White House personnel office. Chmielewski reportedly objected to the idea of buying a $100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership for the administrator, as well as spending $70,000 to replace two desks in his office.
Eric Weese questioned some of Pruitt’s security requests, including the use of lights and sirens when he was running late — on one occasion, so he could get to dinner at the popular D.C. restaurant Le Diplomate, according to the Times report. Weese was moved off Pruitt’s security detail.
An EPA spokesperson denied that the reassignments were connected to the staff members’ push-back on Pruitt’s extravagant spending and unreasonable requests.
Pruitt’s repeated denials regarding the numerous allegations of ethical misconduct he is currently facing stand on increasingly thin ground as more information emerges.
Earlier this week, news came out that Pruitt went around the White House to approve significant pay increases for two of his closest aides. When asked by Fox News why he went around President Trump to give the pay raises, Pruitt denied he approved the salary increases. “I did not,” he said. “My staff did. And I found out about that yesterday and I changed it.”
During the Fox News interview, Pruitt was also questioned about whether it might be an issue that he had rented a Capitol Hill condo — for below market value — linked to an energy lobbyist. Pruitt dodged, saying “Mr. Hart has no clients who have business before this agency.”
In reality, Steven Hart is a high-profile lobbyist for Williams & Jensen whose clients include Canadian pipeline company Enbridge. As it happens, during the same period of time that Pruitt was renting the condo, the EPA signed off on a pipeline approval for Enbridge.
And according to The Daily Beast, Hart was part of a team of four lobbyists at Williams & Jensen that reported lobbying the EPA on behalf of a glass bottle manufacturer, Owens-Illinois, which had paid almost $40 million in 2012 to settle allegations it faced from the EPA about Clean Air Act violations by one of its subsidiary.
Despite the ever-unfolding series of controversies surrounding Pruitt, Trump continues to voice support for him.
“I think Scott has done a fantastic job. I think he’s a fantastic person. You know, I just left coal and energy country,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “They love Scott Pruitt. They feel very strongly about Scott Pruitt. And they love Scott Pruitt. Thank you very much everybody.”
Buried, Altered, Silenced: 4 Ways Government Climate Information has Changed Since Trump Took Office
Morgan Currie, Britt S. Paris, Orig. published by The Conversation March 29, 2018
After Donald Trump won the presidential election, hundreds of volunteers around the U.S. came together to “rescue” federal data on climate change, thought to be at risk under the new administration. “Guerilla archivists,” including ourselves, gathered to archive federal websites and preserve scientific data.
But what has happened since? Did the data vanish?
As of one year later, there has been no great purge. Federal data sets related to environmental and climate science are still accessible in the same ways they were before Trump took office.
However, in many other instances, federal agencies have tampered with information about climate change. Across agency websites, documents have disappeared, web pages have vanished and language has shifted in ways that appear to reflect the policies of the new administration.
Two groups have been keeping a watchful eye on developments. We both belong to the Environmental Data Governance Initiative, the organization behind the data rescue events. The initiative now monitors tens of thousands of federal websites with the help of specialized tracking software. In January, the group published a report that describes sweeping changes to federal web resources.
Meanwhile, Columbia University’s Silencing Science Tracker documents news stories about climate scientists who have been discouraged from conducting, publishing or otherwise communicating scientific research.
These groups have documented four ways that climate-related information has become less accessible since Trump took office.
1. Documents are difficult to find
Documents on existing international environmental treaties and national climate policy have been buried or removed from departments’ current websites.
The State Department’s Office of Global Change, for instance, no longer publishes Climate Action Reports, which the U.S. is obliged to produce under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The reports can no longer be found at their former addresses. Instead, they are archived at new addresses in the Department’s Obama-era web archive, making the reports more difficult for the public to access.
Climate reports removed from the State Department website. Versions from Jan. 20, 2017 (left) and Jan. 26, 2017 (right) on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. URL: https://www.state.gov/e/oes/climate/climateactionreport/index.htm. Environmental Data Governance Initiative, CC BY
In another instance, the Environmental Protection Agency removed links to the Climate Change Adaptation Plan documents, which offer guidelines on climate change mitigation. While the web pages still exist on the EPA server, links from key access points on the site have been removed or redirect to a “This Page is Being Updated” notice.
2. Web pages are buried
Some administrative pages have disappeared from agency sites and can be accessed only from the Obama-era web archive.
The Bureau of Land Management’s climate change page – which discussed the agency’s climate-friendly approach to land planning – now exists only in archival form. State Department pages describing the Montreal Protocol, a global effort signed in 1988 to protect the ozone layer, are similarly displaced.
The EPA appears to have been hit the worst. Two hundred of the original 380 web pages on climate and energy resources for state, local and tribal governments are now accessible in archival form only. What’s more, the word “climate” is no longer in the official website’s title.
The EPA also removed the website for the Clean Power Plan, a signature Obama-era regulation that the current administration hopes to repeal.
3. Language has been altered
Departments have scrubbed websites of environmental terms. The term “climate change,” for instance, no longer exists across certain web pages of several agencies, such as the White House, the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Interior.
Within the Department of Energy, the Clean Energy Investment Center removed the term “clean” from its title. The Government Accountability Office deleted an online warning that “oil and natural gas development pose inherent environmental and public health risks.”
In other cases, language has been changed to reflect the new administration’s agenda. For example, the Bureau of Land Management removed “Clean and Renewable Energy” from its list of national priorities, adding “Making America Safe Through Energy Independence” and “Getting America Back to Work” instead.
Bureau of Land Management’s shifting priorities. Versions from Feb. 7, 2017 (left) and Nov. 26, 2017 (right) on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. URL: https://www.blm.gov/about. Environmental Data Governance Initiative
4. Science has been silenced
But website changes and deletions are just the tip of the iceberg.
Columbia’s Silencing Science Tracker records 116 instances when scientists have been obstructed. The list includes budget cuts, staff cuts, unfilled positions and suspended funds. Climate-related research projects have been canceled and climate fellowships rescinded. In some cases, advisory boards and research centers have been dismantled entirely.
For instance, as of Dec. 31, 2017, the administration had filled only 20 science-related positions out of the 83 total. That pace falls short of both the Obama administration, who had appointed 63, and the Bush administration, who had filled 51, at the same point in time.
In most cases, it’s not possible to know who ordered and administered these changes, whether agency staff working independently or the Trump administration itself.
History shows us how public information on government activities has changed to reflect the policy directives of different administrations. The Bush era saw a similar chilling affect on scientific research and environmental regulation. Several scientists at the time came forward to accuse the administration of censoring public awareness efforts about climate change.
In recent years, the U.S. has reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions. And the Obama administration invested in combating climate change and making related information more available to the public. Now that information is being stifled, but climate change continues, whether it’s documented or not.
These changes are not just damaging to those trying to address climate change. In our view, burying climate science diminishes our democracy. It denies the average citizen the information necessary to make informed decisions, and fuels the flames of rhetoric that denies consensus-based science.
Scott Pruitt just tried to explain those raises and it went oh so terribly wrong
Brian De Los Santos, Mashable April 3, 2018
It’s been a helluva few days for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt.
After controversy on top of controversy, Pruitt was found to have used a little-known provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to give sizable raises to political aides on Tuesday.
The provision permits the EPA administrator to hire up to 30 people without White House or congressional approval, but Pruitt instead used it to hand out raises of $28,130 and $56,765 to his aides, ballooning one of his staffers salaries to more than $160,000. All of this has put Pruitt in hot water with his political counterparts in Washington, with some calling for his resignation over ethical issues.
A day after the news broke, Pruitt granted Fox News an exclusive interview to deny knowing about the raises. You might have imagined it went well, since Pruitt almost only goes on Fox News and other friendly outlets. But, actually, it did not. At all. See the clip below.
“Now if you’re committed to the Trump agenda, why did you go around the president and the White House and give pay raises to two staffers?” Fox News national correspondent Ed Henry said.
“I did not, my staff did and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it,” Pruitt responded.
“So who did it?” Henry said.
“I don’t know,” Pruitt said.
“You don’t know? You run the agency, you don’t know who did it?” Henry said.
“I found out about this yesterday, and I corrected the action. And we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting it,” Pruitt said.
Henry then went on to point out that both of the staffers who received the raises — Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp — are friends of Pruitt’s from Oklahoma, a point that Pruitt dodged. He then also pointed out that the largest of the raises is just about equal to the median income in the country, some $57,000.
“They didn’t get a pay raise,” Pruitt responded. “I stopped that yesterday.”
It’s not the best look for Pruitt, who seems to be having scandal after scandal break by the minute. In Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was asked if Trump is OK with Pruitt’s actions, to which she replied, “The president’s not, we’re reviewing the situation.”
It’s a rapid departure from the White House’s message just a few days ago, when President Trump reportedly called Pruitt and said “Keep your head up, keep fighting.”
Pruitt, who does not recognize mainstream climate science findings and has called for a televised science debate with climate deniers, has played a leading role in undoing the Obama administration’s actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions from global warming.
This week, he announced a move to rescind the Obama-mandated car and truck fuel economy standards, meant to incentivize more fuel efficient cars, and he has taken numerous other steps that would increase U.S. emissions compared to the track we were on before President Trump took office.
So, maybe, Pruitt should stay away from the TV. You know, until the next scandal breaks.
Andrew Freedman contributed reporting to this article.
EPA Chief Denies Knowing Who Raised Aides’ Pay in Heated Fox Interview
By Ari Natter April 4, 2018
Scott Pruitt. Photographer: T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a heated interview with Fox News that he doesn’t know who at the agency raised the pay of two aides in defiance of the White House — the latest controversy to engulf him.
Pruitt, in an interview aired Wednesday, said he wasn’t the one who gave the raises and “I don’t know” who did.
“It should not have been done,” Pruitt says. “There will be some accountability”
The Atlantic, citing a source it didn’t identify, reported Tuesday that Pruitt last month used a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to boost the salaries of two aides by tens of thousands of dollars after the White House refused to go along with raises he had proposed.
Pruitt has been under fire over revelations that he rented a Capitol Hill condo from the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist whose firm has clients regulated by the EPA. The unconventional lease terms permitted Pruitt to pay $50 only on days his bedroom in the unit was actually occupied — with a total of $6,100 in payments over a roughly six-month period last year.
An EPA ethics adviser said the rental arrangement met federal guidelines and didn’t violate a gift ban.
Pruitt said he didn’t know who authorized the pay raise when pressed by Fox News’ correspondent Ed Henry over whether he would hold accountable the person who authorized the raise.
“You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did it?” Henry asked. “One of them got a pay raise of, let’s see, $28,000 the other was $56,000. Do you know what the median income in this country is?”
Pruitt said “No.”
“I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting it,” Pruitt responded.
Rep. Steve King Wants to Undo State Laws Protecting Animals and the Environment
The Iowa lawmaker’s proposal also threatens family farmers, rural communities, and food safety.
By Christina Cooke, Farming, Food Policy April 3, 2018
Missouri farmer Wes Shoemyer felt a huge relief last October when his state passed legislation restricting the application of the weed killer dicamba, which has a tendency to vaporize and drift, harming plants not genetically modified to resist it.
Before the new regulations, a neighbor’s application of the pesticide wafted onto Shoemyer’s property and turned the edges of his soybean plants brown and yellow. Further south, another case of dicamba drift caused millions of dollars of damage to the largest orchard in the state.
Shoemyer worries, however, that the state law protecting his crops from the herbicide will come under threat if legislation that Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced for inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill gains traction in Congress.
House Resolution 4879/3599, officially known as the “Protect Interstate Commerce Act” (and dubbed the “States’ Rights Elimination Act” by opponents), would prohibit state and local governments from regulating the production or manufacture of agricultural products imported from other states and from passing any legislation that sets a standard that is “in addition to” the standard of another state or the federal government. Because Missouri is one of only a handful of states that has passed dicamba regulations, its laws would be subject to challenge.
“They’re moving on everybody’s rights and our ability to analyze situations and to make the best judgments for our local communities,” said Shoemyer, a former Missouri state senator, whose couple-thousand-acre family farm produces corn, soybeans, wheat, small grains, and cattle. “Who the hell does [King] think he is knowing what’s best for Northeast Missouri? If he wants to pass this bill for his Congressional district—hop on it, cowboy. But leave us alone.”
Shoemyer’s concern about Dicamba regulation is just one example of the way the law could impact food and farming. The proposal’s many opponents say it’s extremely broad and far-reaching: it could also undermine states’ abilities to protect air and water quality, workers’ rights, community health, consumer safety, and animal welfare, among other things.
“It would be probably one of the greatest tragedies in the history of animal protection if the King legislation was signed into law,” said Marty Irby, senior advisor with the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
This is not King’s first attempt to pass this type of legislation; the congressman introduced a similar proposal as part of the 2014 Farm Bill, but it failed after numerous groups opposed it.
King, who did not respond to a request for comment on this story, said in a statement last July that the latest legislation is a way to promote “open and unrestricted commerce” and “free trade between the states,” which he views as vital components of a thriving economy.
“Restricting interstate trade would create a great deal of confusion and increased costs to manufacturers,” the statement continued. “This would create a patchwork quilt of conflicting state regulations erected for trade protectionism reasons… [The Protect Interstate Commerce Act] will allow consumers to make their own choices about the products they buy, without the states interfering in that choice.”
How the Resolution Would Work
House Resolution 3599, introduced in July 2017, and its companion H.R. 4879, introduced in January 2018, are nearly identical. Under the section of both that prevents states or localities from imposing standards on imported agricultural goods that exceed either federal or state-of-production standards, no state would be able to pass animal welfare legislation like California’s AB 1437, an accessory bill to Proposition 2, which bans the sale of all eggs—produced in or out of state—from hens confined in cramped battery cages. This level of regulation would not be allowed because no federal standard exists regarding the on-farm condition of egg-laying hens, and California’s law exceeds the standard present in many states.
Some legal experts read the legislation to prevent states from regulating the production and manufacture of agricultural products made and sold within their own borders as well, if those products are also available for sale in other states.
The latter version of the resolution, 4879, is expected to be the one considered and includes a clause that allows for “private right of action,” giving anyone affected by a state or local regulation on an agricultural good sold in interstate commerce the right to challenge the regulation in court to invalidate it and seek damages.
In the case of California egg production, the legislation would set up a mechanism by which an egg supplier in Iowa that employs battery cages (or a distributor, or a trade association, or the state of Iowa itself) could sue the state of California for the right to sell its product there. And it could potentially open up the Golden State once again to factory-farmed products that don’t meet its current, higher animal welfare standards.
Chelsea Davis, director of communications for Family Farm Action and a family farmer herself, believes King’s legislation furthers the globalization of the food system and prioritizes corporate interests over family farmers. “It gives big agribusiness companies freer rein to do what they would like to do in any given state, because it lowers the standard to [whatever the criterion is in] the states that have the lowest regulation,” she said. She added, “this law says the lowest common denominator wins.”
Loss of State and Local Control
Because the federal government and some states have established low-to-no standards regarding many aspects of agricultural production, the King legislation could threaten a huge variety of state and local measures that raise the bar. For example, it could undermine Maryland’s prohibition on poultry products containing arsenic; North Carolina’s requirement that hog-farm manure lagoons and spray fields be at least 1,500 feet from occupied residences; and Georgia’s ban on the sale of dog meat.
Other state laws at risk of nullification elevate regulations on issues including child labor; handling of dangerous farm equipment; importing of diseased products like firewood or bee colonies; shark finning; standards ensuring that seeds are not adulterated; the sale criteria of products like farm-raised fish and raw milk; labeling of flagship products like wild-caught salmon, Vidalia onions, bourbon, and maple syrup; and standards that protect consumers by ensuring BPA-free baby food containers and the labeling of consumer chemicals known to cause birth defects.
Because the U.S. is so diverse, state and local governments are better positioned than the federal government to recognize, analyze, and address the needs that arise in various areas, said Patty Lovera, assistant director of the advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
“The idea [behind this legislation] is to try to tie the hands of state governments that might be willing to do a better job than the feds are doing on a lot of these issues,” Lovera said. “A lot of changes over the years have started at the state level—multiple states do it, and then the federal government decides to do it. So to stop them from doing that is a problem.”
In addition to the regulation protecting against dicamba drift, Shoemyer in Missouri worries that, if passed, the King legislation could reverse an agricultural development ordinance a neighboring county commission passed after a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) tried to open 800 feet from Mark Twain Lake, the water source for 16 counties, including his own. He also wonders whether the legislation would affect his ability to market his non-GMO corn and beans.
King’s attempt to “move in on [his] rights” infuriates Shoemyer, who calls it, “a slap in the face to every rural region and family farmer—and anyone who really believes in and invests in their local community.”
Next Steps and Opposition
Co-sponsored by representatives Collin Peterson (D-MN), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Robert Pittenger (R-NC), and Rod Blum (R-IA), the legislation is currently sitting in the House Agriculture and Judiciary subcommittees; if approved, it could progress toward law as an amendment of the 2018 Farm Bill. But a broad coalition of 75 organizations—including Farm Aid, the National Organic Coalition, the Pesticide Action Network, the National Farmworker Women’s Alliance, and the National Dairy Producers Association—have banded together to oppose the acts.
Opponents hold that King’s legislation violates the 10th Amendment, which guarantees states’ rights, and they point out that it stands in direct conflict with Republican lawmakers’ tendency to deregulate and side with states over the federal government.
“[King] is a guy always talking about states’ rights and going against the big machine,” said Irby of the Humane Society. “But in this, he’s taking the complete opposite approach. What he’s doing is drastic federal overreach and an assault on the powers of state legislatures.”
Despite the widespread opposition, Davis of Family Farm Action believes it’s important to keep educating legislators about the legislation’s negative implications and pressuring them to reject it. “You always have to be concerned with how quickly things can happen,” she said. “You might not think something has legs and all of a sudden it does, and it moves quickly.”
As a rural resident, a consumer, a family farmer, and a person invested in state and local government, Shoemyer hopes people will pay attention to the potential implications of the legislation. “It affects every single one of us,” he said.
Trump Administration Declares War on California’s Environmental Standards
By Ed Kilgore April 3, 2018
The fight against smog was one of many factors that made California a national and global leader in environmental protection. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images
In an expansion of its war of words and lawsuits with the state of California over immigration policy, the Trump administration is issuing a dual threat to the Golden State’s right to police its own environment. One prong of this attack involves a lawsuit to invalidate a novel California law that seeks to give the state the right of first refusal for the sale of federal lands within its borders. The second renews an effort by the George W. Bush administration to revoke a long-standing waiver California has held to offer tougher Clean Air Act standards than the federal government, which has led it to adopt fuel-economy standards adopted by 12 other states (and emulated internationally).
The attempted land sale “veto,” which expands state authority over federal property to an unprecedented extent, would appear to offer the administration the best odds of a reasonably quick victory in the courts. But California’s Democratic politicians and environmental activists will ensure that Team Trump takes a beating in the court of public opinion for its eagerness to sell off public lands (roughly half the state of California) for private development.
The auto-emissions fight, however, is an old one, dating back to the days before the Environmental Protection Agency was founded and the Clean Air Act as we know it today was developed, when California, famously beset by smog, was a pioneer in environmental regulation. The 1970 Clean Air Act amendments authorized waivers allowing California (and states choosing to adopt California’s standards) to exceed federal standards for air quality, including those governing automobile emissions. Subsequent administrations continued to reissue waivers, and California (usually supported by the auto industry itself) set the pace for the country and much of the world, until the Bush administration balked at a 2002 California law imposing significantly higher fuel-economy standards than it supported nationally. After formally denying renewal of the Clean Air Act waiver in 2007, the feds were tangled up in regulatory and legal actions until Barack Obama took office and called off the dogs.
What distinguishes the Trump effort from its predecessor is that the Bush administration was supporting its own less ambitious initiativeto strengthen fuel-economy standards for autos. Team Trump, led by Mr. Fossil Fuel himself, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, is trying to lower federal standards significantly. And its clientele in this revanchist effort includes oil companies fearing clean-energy cars and also an auto industry that now sees an opportunity to batten on low oil prices and the consequent consumer lust for gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.
The fight to bring back dirtier cars won’t be easy, though, as the New York Timesreports:
“Even at the federal level, the president’s announcement alone will not be enough to immediately roll back emissions standards, a process expected to take more than a year of legal and regulatory reviews by the E.P.A. and the Transportation Department. The Trump administration would then need to propose its own replacement fuel-economy standards.”
And then the administration would face the same tough fight in the courts that eventually thwarted Bush, and with fewer possible grounds for compromise, as the Los Angeles Timesnotes:
“Pruitt’s legal ability to revoke California’s authority is uncertain and any such move could be tied up in court for years. In the meantime, auto companies would be faced with the complicated and costly prospect of building and selling two different sets of cars — one for California and the other states that follow its standards, and one for the rest of the country.”
The resisting states account for more than a third of all car sales. Although automakers have been hopeful some deal could be brokered, perhaps with California agreeing to weaken the more immediate targets in exchange for federal buy-in to more aggressive goals through 2030, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
Pruitt says he’s not interested in making such concessions, and California officials say they see no reason to go along with his rollback.
“[Pruitt] signaled that he aimed to make California fall in line. The Obama administration, he said, “made assumptions about the standards that didn’t comport with reality, and set the standards too high.” California’s history of setting its own emissions rules “doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country,” Mr. Pruitt said.”
California’s strategy undoubtedly relies on the hope that the clock will run out on the Trump administration’s drive to preempt tougher fuel-economy standards because Trump himself will be evicted from office in 2020. Between now and then, however, the rhetoric will be as hot as a climate-change-driven summer day in Southern California. Governor Jerry Brown, who was attorney general of the state when it successfully fought off the Bush administration’s assault on higher fuel-efficiency standards, is accepting the call to battle:
“California Governor Jerry Brown said Monday the EPA’s decision represents a “cynical and meretricious abuse of power [that] will poison our air and jeopardize the health of all Americans.”
If the president and his people think it will help them with their “base” to pick fights with California and its alleged secular/socialist/hippie character, they’ll get their money’s worth.
EPA Mulled Leasing a Private Jet, and Other Scandalous Scott Pruitt Revelations
By Margaret Hartmann April 3, 2018
Top this, Ben Carson. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After President Trump embarked on a firing spree last month, reports emerged that he was considering axing all “deadweight” members of his Cabinet. Incredibly, as other Trump officials tried to lay low, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt found himself at the center of yet another ethics scandal last week when ABC News revealed that during his first six months in Washington, he lived in a $50-a-night rental room in a Capitol Hill condo co-owned by a top energy lobbyist’s wife.
On Monday Politicoreported that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is still considering firing Pruitt in the coming months, and suddenly there was a flurry of reports about the EPA chief’s ethically questionable behavior. Hmm! Here’s a quick guide to why Pruitt is pulling ahead in the race to be the next Trump official to hear “you’re fired!” (Or rather, read it in a tweet.)
Pruitt appears to be hanging on because despite various scandals, he’s been effective in rolling back environmental protections, just as Trump wanted. For instance, on Monday he announced that the EPA will do away with the Obama administration’s greenhouse gas and fuel emissions standards for cars and trucks.
But Politico suggests Pruitt isn’t necessarily safe, Kelly just wanted to wait for the results of an inspector general’s report on his lavish travel habits, which involved spending at least $163,000 on first-class flights, charter flights, and a ride on a military jet. The IG is also looking into the $43,000 Pruitt spent to install a soundproof phone booth in his office. Which brings us to …
The Wall Street Journal’s report on Monday that the White House is conducting a review of Pruitt’s activities in light of reports about his former living arrangements — though the EPA said it was no big deal:
The purpose of the inquiry is to “dig a little deeper,” the first official said, indicating that the White House isn’t satisfied with a statement from the EPA last week that the $50-a-night lease agreement didn’t violate federal ethics rules.
A memo from an EPA ethics official, dated March 30, said that if Mr. Pruitt were to have used the home for 30 days, the rent would come to $1,500. That sum, the official, Kevin Minoli, wrote, is “a reasonable market value.”
The Daily Beast shared an interesting fact about Pruitt’s occasional abode: During the time Pruitt was living there, at least three members of Congress held fundraisers there for their congressional campaigns. The EPA claimed Pruitt wasn’t at the fundraisers, and noted Cabinet secretaries are allowed to attend political events.
Maybe that’s not such a big deal, as few are living up to the “drain the swamp” mantra. But the New York Times reported on Monday that while Pruitt was staying at the condo owned by the wife of a Williams & Jensen lobbyist, the EPA signed off on one of its client’s projects.
Williams & Jensen was registered as lobbying for the Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc. on “issues affecting pipelines and construction of new pipelines” at the time. However, a spokesperson for the firm denied that it intervened with the EPA or Pruitt regarding the pipeline expansion. Pruitt’s spokesperson added: “Any attempt to draw that link is patently false.”
Bringing things back around to an old school Pruitt scandal, the Washington Post reported that in an effort to better accommodate Pruitt’s pricey travel expenses during his first few months on the job, his aides looked into leasing a private jet on a monthly basis. The plan was reportedly scuttled after some top advisers objected to paying an estimated $100,000 per month for the jet.
The option was explored prior to September 2017, when Tom Price was ousted as secretary of health and human services over his penchant for taxpayer-funded charter flights — though he didn’t even have any weird, expensive office furniture.
A constant drip of self-dealing. And this is just what we know so far …
By Joy Crane and Nick Tabor April 1, 2018
Introduction By Davis Cay Johnston
Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow
On the day he took the oath of office, Donald Trump delivered two messages about what to expect from his administration. First came the lofty promise of his inaugural address. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” he vowed. “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished — but the people did not share in its wealth.”
The second message, which Trump delivered without speaking a word, was aimed at a much smaller, but very rich, audience. As the new president’s motorcade left the Capitol, rolling past knots of supporters and protesters, it suddenly stopped three blocks short of the White House. Trump, the First Lady, and the rest of his family got out of their limos and took a three-minute turn in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue.
This was no random spot. The very first place Trump headed after being sworn in — his true destination all along, in a sense — was the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, which only 12 days before the election had been repurposed as the Trump International Hotel Washington. The elegant granite structure, whose architectural character Trump had promised to preserve, was now besmirched by a gaudy, faux-gold sign bearing his name. The carefully choreographed stop sent a clear signal to the foreign governments, lobbyists, and corporate interests keen on currying favor in Washington: The rewards of government would now be reaped by a single man — and the people would bear the cost.
7 Of President Trump’s Dictatorial Tendencies
More than at any time in history, the president of the United States is actively using the power and prestige of his office to line his own pockets: landing loans for his businesses, steering wealthy buyers to his condos, securing cheap foreign labor for his resorts, preserving federal subsidies for his housing projects, easing regulations on his golf courses, licensing his name to overseas projects, even peddling coffee mugs and shot glasses bearing the presidential seal. For Trump, whose business revolves around the marketability of his name, there has proved to be no public policy too big, and no private opportunity too crass, to exploit for personal profit.
Nowhere has the self-enrichment been more evident than at his Washington hotel, which quickly filled up with the very lobbyists and swamp creatures Trump had railed against during his campaign. Oil companies, mining interests, insurance executives, foreign diplomats, and defense contractors all rushed to book their annual conferences at Trump’s hotels and resorts, where Cabinet members graciously addressed them. After hiking the nightly rate to $653 — 32 percent higher than other local luxury hotels — Trump collected $2 million in profits from the property during his first three months in office. By last August, the hotel’s bar and restaurant had hauled in another $8 million in revenue. And although Trump has pledged to give away any money his hotels earn from foreign governments, the plan contains a lucrative loophole: Employees at his hotels admit that they make no effort to identify guests who represent other countries, meaning that much of the foreign money spent at Trump’s properties flows directly into his own pockets. On March 28, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit to go forward that charges Trump with violating the Constitution by accepting money from foreign governments at his D.C. hotel.
In fact, although Trump refuses to disclose the details of his myriad business operations, he continues to enjoy access to every dime he makes as president. Instead of setting up a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest, as other presidents have done, Trump put his two grown sons in charge of his more than 500 business entities. His sons regularly brief Trump about how the enterprises are doing, enabling him to personally monitor how his decisions in office affect his bottom line. What’s more, only 15 days after this “eyes wide open” trust was set up, Trump amended the fine print to allow him to take money out of the operation any time he pleases. The loophole, buried on page 161 of the 166-page form, stipulates that any “net income or principal” can be distributed to Trump “at his request.” Far from putting his wealth in a blind trust, Trump asked the public for its blind trust, effectively sticking his money in a piggy bank in Don Jr.’s room that he is free to raid at any hour of the day or night.
Trump’s children are working hard to cash in on his time in office — especially with foreign investors. At taxpayer expense, they have flown to Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Dubai, and India in search of licensing and real-estate deals, trading on the president’s influence in exchange for investments. But the biggest complication of Trump’s presidency — and the one he works hardest to keep secret — is the way his entire business operation is mired in massive debt. Rather than being independently wealthy, public records show, Trump and the business partnerships in which he is a leading investor owe big banks and foreign governments at least $2.3 billion — far more than his disclosure reports indicate. His largest single loan — for nearly $1 billion — is from a syndicate assembled by Goldman Sachs that includes the state-owned Bank of China. If either Trump or Jared Kushner, who tried to shake down Qatar’s finance minister for a loan, winds up needing to negotiate new terms on his ballooning debt, America could find itself being dictated to by a foreign government — all because the White House, thanks to Trump’s business model, has become a true House of Cards.
What follows is 501 days of official corruption, from small-time graft and brazen influence peddling to full-blown raids on the federal Treasury. Given how little Trump has disclosed about his finances, this timeline of self-dealing is undoubtedly only a fraction of the corruption that will eventually come to light. But as even this initial glimpse makes clear, Trump isn’t draining the swamp — he’s monetizing it. —David Cay Johnston
Trump’s Hotel in D.C.
Photo: Tony Millionaire
“The stars have all aligned. I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been.” —Eric Trump, speaking at the hotel
2016
12/7 Diplomats from Bahrain move the country’s National Day celebration from the Ritz-Carlton to the ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
2017
1/20 A watchdog group calls on the General Services Administration, a federal agency, to stop leasing the Old Post Office to Trump for use as the hotel. The agency’s ethics division, which reports to Trump, rules that the $180 million deal is fine.
1/23 Saudi Arabia holds a bash at the hotel after renting rooms for lobbyists for five months. Trump’s haul: $270,000.
2/25 The Kuwaiti Embassy, reportedly pressured by the Trump Organization, moves its National Day celebration from the Four Seasons to Trump’s hotel.
3/1 The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association hosts a dinner at the hotel, drenched in Trump-branded coffee and wine.
3/22 The American Petroleum Institute holds its board meeting at Trump’s hotel, where it meets with EPA chief Scott Pruitt. A month later, Pruitt suspends drilling regulations.
5/1Rates at the hotel jump to $653 per night, a price hike of 60 percent since Trump’s election.
5/21 A Turkish government council holds its annual conference at the hotel. The group’s chair founded the company that paid $530,000 to former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lobbying work.
7/17 E-cigarette-makers hold their annual conference at the hotel. Ten days later, the FDA announces it will delay federal oversight of e-cigarettes until 2022.
8/11 A federal agency accidentally posts the hotel’s Q1 profits: $2 million.
9/13 Staffers for Linda McMahon, head of the Small Business Administration, try to cover up the fact that she addressed a business lobbying event at the hotel, avoiding images of hotel signs bearing Trump’s name when posting photos of the event on Twitter.
9/28 The Fund for American Studies, a conservative organization, hosts a lunch at the hotel. The keynote speaker, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, thanks Trump’s staff for helping him get confirmed.
Rick Perry.
10/4 At its annual board meeting, the National Mining Association is addressed by three Cabinet members: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “Coal is fighting back,” Perry exults over breakfast with the country’s top mining executives. “Clearly the president wants to revive, not revile, this vital resource.” Five days later, the Trump administration announces the repeal of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have encouraged states to replace coal with wind and solar energy. The plan would have cut climate-warming pollution from coal plants by a third and saved taxpayers and consumers as much as $93 billion a year. The venue for the mining board’s meeting: the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
10/5 A commercial real-estate trade association hosts an awards gala at Trump’s hotel, sponsored by a roster of prominent lobbying agents.
10/11 The American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful conservative lobbying group with ties to the Koch brothers, announces that the venue for its 45th-anniversary gala will be Trump’s hotel. The group requests corporate sponsorships of up to $100,000.
2018
3/5 The Independent Petroleum Association of America holds a three-day lobbying event at the hotel.
3/28 A federal judge declines to stop a lawsuit that accuses Trump of violating the Constitution by accepting money from foreign governments at his hotel.
Mar-a-Lago
“The ornate Jazz Age house was designed with Old-World Spanish, Venetian, and Portuguese influences.” —From a state department promo online
2016
12/31 Mar-a-Lago hosts a New Year’s Eve party with Trump, priced at $525 a ticket. His take for the night: $400,000.
2017
1/1 The resort quietly doubles its initiation fee to $200,000 — a potential haul of $2 million. In return, club members get access to the president on a par with White House officials.
4/4 The State Department runs an online promotion for Mar-a-Lago, which is also picked up by embassy websites in England and Albania.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
4/6 Trump and Ivanka meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. That same day, China approves trademarks for three of Ivanka’s brands.
6/16 Financial-disclosure filings show that Trump’s revenues from the resort soared by 25 percent during his presidential run.
7/17 The administration increases the allotment of H2-B visas for foreign workers. Within days, Mar-a-Lago applies for 76 of the new visas — even though a local jobs agency has 5,100 applicants qualified to fill the openings.
11/10 The Republican Attorneys General Association, which has spent more than $75,000 at Trump’s properties in five months, holds a reception at Mar-a-Lago. It later forms a “working group” to partner with the Trump administration to roll back environmental protections.
12/9 Oxbow Carbon, a major energy company that would benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline, holds its annual holiday gala at Mar-a-Lago.
12/31 Trump boosts ticket prices for his New Year’s Eve bash to $750. Taxpayers foot the $26,000 bill for lights, generators, and tent rental.
2018
1/9 The Trump administration opens offshore drilling in all but one state: Florida, where oil and gas exploration could hurt business at Mar-a-Lago.
2/18 Reports reveal that Trump regularly solicits input from Mar-a-Lago members on everything from gun control to Jared Kushner’s favorability. Unlike other politicians, who are limited to asking the wealthy for campaign contributions, Trump has found a way to personally profit from selling access to the president.
2/26 An Israel-focused charity, the Truth About Israel, relocates its gala to Mar-a-Lago in appreciation of the president’s support for Israel.
Trump’s Other Properties & Investments
Trump’s resort in Miami. Photo: The Washington Post/Getty Images
“The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves. They’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts.” —Donald Trump
2016
11/14 In a call with Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, Trump reportedly pushes for approval to build a Trump Tower in downtown Buenos Aires. Ivanka Trump, who oversees the family business with her brothers, sits in on the call.
2017
1/24 Trump signs an executive order to fast-track the Dakota Access Pipeline. He claims to have sold the stock he owns in the pipeline’s builders — as much as $300,000 — but offers no proof.
Photo: EnginKorkmaz/Getty Images
1/27 Trump issues the travel ban but leaves off Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt — countries where he has significant business interests. His company was paid as much as $10 million for use of his name on a tower in Istanbul, and he registered eight new businesses in Saudi Arabia during his campaign.
2/3 Trump, who owned as much as $5 million in bank stocks in 2016, orders the Treasury secretary to consider ways to roll back regulations on banks. The value of bank stocks soars nearly 30 percent during his first year in office.
2/14 Trump, who owned stock in large oil companies, allows oil companies to hide the payments they make to foreign governments in exchange for extraction rights. The move comes only two months after ExxonMobil, which lobbied for the concession, donated $500,000 to Trump’s inauguration.
2/21 Angela Chen, a consultant with ties to China’s ruling elite, buys a $16 million penthouse in a Trump-owned property.
2/28 Trump, who owns 12 golf courses in the U.S., rolls back a rule that limits water pollution by golf courses.
From left, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Donald Trump, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
4/29 Overriding diplomatic concerns, Trump invites Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. To gain favor with Trump, Duterte had appointed the president’s partner on the Trump Tower in Manila as his economic envoy to the U.S.
5/7 The Metals Service Center Institute, which is pushing the Commerce Department for steel tariffs, holds its annual conference at Trump’s resort in Miami.
5/16 The Republican Governors Association holds a conference at Trump’s golf club in Miami, where members strategize with corporate executives over how to persuade the new administration to dismantle environmental regulations and enact other business-friendly moves. Trump’s take for the conference: $400,000.
5/19 Trump proposes slashing HUD’s budget — but retains a subsidythat has poured more than $490 million into a housing complex in Brooklyn where Trump has a financial stake.
Lynne Patton.
6/16 Lynne Patton, an event planner and friend of the Trump family with no experience in housing, is put in charge of the HUD region covering New York and New Jersey — giving her the power to disburse federal subsidies directly to the Brooklyn housing complex from which Trump made $5 million in 2016.
8/2 Activists protest against JPMorgan Chase, which lobbied to slash the corporate tax rate while paying Trump $1.5 million a year in rent at one of his office buildings.
9/19 Report reveals that the Pentagon spends $130,000 a month in rent at Trump Tower — more than twice as much as other tenants.
10/9 Trump International Hotel in Chicago hosts a two-day conference for the manufacturing industry.
10/10 An insurance-industry trade association holds its four-day annual conference at Trump’s resort in Miami.
10/16 GEO Group, the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, holds its annual conference at the Trump National Doral. The company poured $450,000 into Trump’s campaign and inauguration after Obama announced plans to end all federal contracts with private prisons. GEO also hired two of Jeff Sessions’s former aides, plus a former Trump Organization employee, as lobbyists. The investment paid off: A month after Trump took office, he ended the ban on private prisons. GEO received a $110 million contract to build a new immigration jail in Texas, plus $44 million a year to operate it. Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced it would slash some 6,000 jobs and transfer more inmates to private facilities.
10/18 Defense contractor L3 Technologies holds its annual meeting at Trump National Doral. L3 depends on government largesse for 84 percent of its revenue.
10/19 In a break with tradition, Trump personally interviews candidates for U.S. attorney in the districts that cover most of his business dealings. For the New York position, he ultimately chooses one of his campaign donors.
11/7 Trump hawks his golf course during a major speech to South Korea’s legislature.
11/8 A payday-lender lobbying group announces it will hold its 2018 annual conference at the Trump National Doral. Two months later, the administration announces it is considering scrapping a rule that requires payday lenders to stop taking advantage of clients who cannot pay off their loans.
2018
1/2 A judge rules that Starrett City, a housing complex in Brooklyn that Trump owns a stake in, can be sold to private developers. The sale, which the administration approved after it was halted by George W. Bush, is expected to net Trump $14 million.
2/21 Mississippi awards $6 million in tax breaks to a new Trump-branded hotel.
Family & Friends
“The company and policy and government are completely separated. We have built an unbelievable wall in between the two.” —Eric Trump
2016
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and Melania Trump. Photo: Clint Spaulding/WWD/REX/Shutterstock
11/13 While appearing on 60 Minutes to discuss her father’s election, Ivanka Trump wears a $10,800 bracelet from her jewelry company. After the interview, the company sends out a “style alert”promoting the bracelet to reporters.
12/6 Firm founded by Melania Trump’s friend and adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff receives $26 million for helping plan the inauguration.
2017
1/5 Eric Trump jets to Uruguay to check on an unfinished Trump condo tower. The trip costs taxpayers $97,830.
2/5 Eric Trump spends $200,000 in taxpayer money to jet to the Dominican Republic to push for a Trump-branded project. The deal — which would put Trump’s name on 17 high-rises — violates a Dominican height limit for new resorts. It also breaks Trump’s vow not to seek overseas deals during his presidency. The Dominican president personally approves the high-rises. “Here in the palace, the president’s thoughts are that this U.S. president is angry and we better not get in his way,” a former Dominican ambassador explains. “We don’t want to cross him.”
2/6 Melania’s lawyers, suing a British paper for libel, argue its reporting ruined her “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to monetize her position as First Lady by cashing in on “multi-million-dollar business relationships.”
2/9 Kellyanne Conway offers “free commercial” for Ivanka’s clothing line on Fox News: “Go buy it today, everybody.” Trump refuses to discipline her, defying recommendation of his own ethics agency.
2/18 Taxpayers pay $16,000 to provide security for Eric Trump and Donald Jr. during their trip to open a Trump-branded golf course in Dubai. The event is invitation-only.
3/3 Jared Kushner meets with the CEO of Citigroup, which is lobbying to loosen financial regulations. Citigroup subsequently lends Kushner’s company $325 million to develop a group of office buildings in Brooklyn.
3/9 Kushner fails to disclose his ownership of Cadre, a real-estate start-up. The firm’s value shot up by millions of dollars after he entered the White House.
3/20 Eric’s wife posts a photo on Instagram of the family’s weeklong ski vacation in Aspen. Taxpayers were charged $330,000 for security details and another $200,000 for luxury lodgings.
3/20 Ivanka, refusing to place her assets in a blind trust, sets up shop in the West Wing.
4/24 Kushner’s family tries to broker funding for his real-estate ventures with Qatar’s finance minister. The minister declines. A month later, Kushner supports diplomatic actions against Qatar.
5/5 Trump extends fast-track visas for foreigners who invest $500,000 in U.S. properties. The next day, Kushner’s sister promises visas to Chinese investors if they put $500,000 into the family’s properties in New Jersey.
5/17 Kushner’s company is subpoenaed by federal prosecutors and the SEC for its promotion of the investment-for-visa program.
7/21 CNN finds that even after his family business apologizes for name-dropping Kushner at a marketing event in Beijing, it highlights his White House role in an online sales pitch to Chinese investors.
10/3 Kushner fined $200 for missing a disclosure deadline. To date, he has been forced to change his disclosure form 39 times for failing to mention potential conflicts of interest.
10/4 ProPublica investigation reveals that after Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance dropped a criminal investigation against Donald Jr. and Ivanka, their attorney arranged a fund-raiser on Vance’s behalf, donating $32,000 himself and raising at least $9,000 more.
11/1 Apollo Global Management lends Kushner’s real-estate company $184 million — triple the size of its average loan — after meeting with him in the White House. Six weeks later, the SEC drops investigation into Apollo’s finances.
12/3 Kushner is exposed for failing to disclose that his family’s foundation — which he led for nine years — funded an illegal Israeli settlement on the West Bank. Just before Trump took office, Kushner tried to sway a U.N. vote against an anti-settlement resolution.
2018
2/20 Donald Jr. tours India to sell Trump-branded homes; several newspapers run an ad promising a “conversation and dinner” with him — for an additional fee of $30,000.
Officials & Their Pals
“We are going to send the special interests packing.” —Donald Trump
2017
Steven Mnuchin.
1/19 During his confirmation as Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin fails to disclose a hedge fund he registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying federal taxes — the very thing he is supposed to collect as Treasury secretary.
1/24 During his confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price fails to disclose an insider deal he got on $520,000 in stock in a biotech company. As secretary, he will be in a position to approve a drug the company has developed.
2/9 Reports reveal that a top White House aide, Chris Liddell, participated in meetings between Trump and the CEOs of 18 companies in which he held large amounts of stock — a possible criminal offense. The companies included Lockheed Martin, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and Dow Chemical.
Flynn seated beside Putin.
3/16 Congressional investigators reveal that Trump’s former national-security adviser Michael Flynn — who wanted to “rip up” American sanctions on Russia — failed to report $45,000 in fees he received from the Russian state media outlet RT.
4/14 The White House stops releasing logs of visitors, concealing trips made by lobbyists and corporate executives. In Trump’s first two months alone, by one estimate, more than 500 executives and foreign leaders made unrecorded visits to the White House.
6/29HUD Secretary Ben Carson tours Baltimore — accompanied by prospective business associates being courted by his son. One administrator on the tour later offers Carson’s daughter-in-law a contract worth $500,000.
11/5 New reports reveal that during his confirmation hearings, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose that a Russian shipping firm he owns a stake in has close ties to Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. His new job puts him in charge of American trade policy with Russia.
12/18 Under pressure from watchdogs, EPA chief Scott Pruitt terminates a $120,000 contract for a firm he has worked with in the past to dig up information on EPA staffers who had criticized him or his policies.
12/22 “You all just got a lot richer,” Trump tells wealthy patrons at Mar-a-Lago hours after signing a massive tax give-a-way to the superrich. The bill saved Trump $15 million in taxes and Jared Kushner $12 million. It also enriched much of Trump’s inner circle — including Linda McMahon, Betsy DeVos, Steven Mnuchin, and Rex Tillerson.
2018
Betsy DeVos. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
1/12 Performant Financial is one of only two companies awarded $400 million in contracts from the Education Department to collect on defaulted student loans. One notable former investor in Performant: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
1/31 CDC chief Brenda Fitzgerald is forced to resign over her purchase of stock in one of the world’s largest tobacco companies. She bought the shares a month after taking over the agency tasked with reducing tobacco use.
2/1 William Emanuel, a Trump appointee to the National Labor Relations Board, is investigated for a possible ethics violation after he votes on a case involving his former law firm. His tie-breaking vote would have made it harder for employees at franchises like McDonald’s to hold their parent companies accountable for labor-law violations, but the decision is thrown out because of his conflict of interest.
3/29 ABC News reports that EPA chief Pruitt spent much of his first year in Washington living in a townhouse co-owned by the wife of J. Steven Hart, a top energy lobbyist. Hart lobbied the EPA on several policies last year, including coal regulations and limits on air pollution.
Lobbyist & Other Sleaze
“We’re going to end the government corruption, and we’re going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.” —Donald Trump
2017
1/17 Scott Mason, a key member of Trump’s transition team, returns to lobbying — one of nine transition-team members to violate Trump’s pledge that he would bar such revolving-door moves for at least six months. One of Mason’s clients, Peabody Energy, later helps dream up a coal-industry bailout promoted by Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
1/23 Trump appoints Jeffrey Wood, a lobbyist for a coal polluter, to prosecute environmental crimes like coal pollution.
2/6 Lauren Maddox, who guided Betsy DeVos through her confirmation process for Education secretary, is hired by a for-profit law school to help restore its access to federal student loans. After paying $130,000 in lobbying fees, the school gets its wish: The Education Department agrees to reconsider its eligibility for millions in loans.
Carl Icahn. Photo: CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
2/27 Billionaire Carl Icahn, an unpaid adviser to Trump, submits a regulatory proposal that would raise the value of his investment in an oil refinery. During Trump’s first six weeks in office, Icahn makes an extra $60 million on the deal.
4/12 Marcus Peacock, a policy expert in Trump’s budget office, takes a job lobbying the budget office for the Business Roundtable, which represents 200 of America’s largest corporations. Trump makes no move to enforce the five-year moratorium he vowed to place on such revolving-door moves.
5/19 Trump nominates K. T. McFarland, adviser who once siphoned off $14,000 in campaign funds for “personal use,” as ambassador to Singapore.
8/1 A top aide to EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who oversees federal grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars, receives permission to work as a consultant for private clients. Despite his influence over public policy, the identities of his clients will be kept secret.
8/15 Two Trump campaign operatives register a new lobbying firm, Turnberry Solutions, named after the Scottish town where Trump owns a golf club. Its first client, Elio Motors, hires it to help obtain government handouts.
10/17 Whitefish Energy, a Montana firm that employed the son of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, is awarded $300 million in a no-bid federal contract to restore storm-battered Puerto Rico.
10/26 Trump nominates J. Steven Gardner, a coal-industry consultant, to oversee enforcement of strip-mining regulations. The Senate winds up rejecting the nomination.
Kirstjen Nielsen.
11/8 Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, was guided through her confirmation by a lobbyist whose clients compete for DHS contracts. Privatizing the “sherpa” role in confirmations — work long performed by government staffers — opens up a brazen new frontier in corruption. The lobbyist, Thad Bingel, oversaw the drafting of official policy memos and was included on emails between the DHS and the White House, enabling him to exploit internal information for private gain. Among Bingel’s clients is an Israeli defense contractor being paid $145 million by DHS to build part of Trump’s “virtual wall” along the Mexican border.
12/6 A photographer at the Department of Energy is fired after leaking a photo that shows Rick Perry receiving a confidential “action plan” from a coal magnate in March. The plan is a blueprint for the coal-industry bailout that Perry announced in September.
2018
1/12 Trump gives Kenneth Allen, a former mining executive who still profits from coal sales to the Tennessee Valley Authority, a seat on the TVA board.
Trump and Alex Azar. Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
1/29 Alex Azar, a former lobbyist who worked his way up to the presidency of a drug company, is sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services. Azar, whose company hiked the price of insulin and other drugs under his watch, is now in charge of making drugs more affordable.
2/12 Carl Icahn, who served as an unpaid adviser to Trump, sells $30 million in steel stocks just before Trump announces tariffs on steel imports.
2/18 Dina Powell, who advised Trump on foreign policy, returns to Goldman Sachs only two months after leaving the White House. At Goldman, she will focus on “enhancing the firm’s relationships” with some of the same foreign governments she advised Trump on.
3/2 Trump nominates Peter Wright, an attorney for Dow Chemical, to lead the EPA’s regulation of chemical spills. Dow has 100 polluted sites that Wright would be in charge of cleaning up.
Petty Graft
“We are going to ask every department head to provide a list of wasteful spending projects we can eliminate.” —Donald Trump
2017
Eric Trump and Don Trump Jr. Photo: Phillip Chin/Getty Images for Trump Internati
2/28 The State Department spends $15,000 in taxpayer money for the grand opening of a Trump hotel in Vancouver, an event attended by Eric, Tiffany, and Donald Jr.
4/14 Trump jets to Mar-a-Lago via Air Force One at a cost to taxpayers of $142,380 per hour. For years, Trump heckled President Obama for taking vacations and golfing trips at government expense. If elected, he vowed, he would “rarely leave the White House, because there’s so much work to be done.” In fact, during his first three months in office, Trump’s taxpayer-funded flights to his private properties exceeded $20 million — on track to quickly surpass the amount Obama spent on travel during his eight years in office. Trump made more than 90 visits to his golf courses and played almost twice as much golf as Obama. His family joined in, requiring Secret Service agents to rack up an extra 4,054 days of taxpayer-funded travel to keep up.
5/16 Rick Perry and his staffers take a private jet to a small-business forum in Kansas City, at a cost to taxpayers of $35,000, rather than taking a nonstop flight to the airport 45 minutes away from the event.
6/2 David Shulkin’s chief of staff falsifies an email to suggest that the VA secretary needed to travel to Europe to receive an award. Shulkin’s 11-day trip with his wife, most of which was devoted to sightseeing, cost taxpayers $122,344.
6/7 Scott Pruitt, the EPA chief, spends $36,000 in taxpayer money to take a military plane to New York.
6/24 Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin marries Louise Linton and requests a military plane for their honeymoon to Europe — at a cost to taxpayers of $25,000 per hour.
6/26 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spends $12,375 in taxpayer money to fly home aboard a private flight from Las Vegas, where he hung out with a hockey team owned by his biggest campaign donor.
7/7 Zinke uses $6,250 in taxpayer money for a helicopter flight from Virginia to Washington, D.C. — a three-hour car ride — for a horse-riding date with Mike Pence.
8/4 HHS Secretary Tom Price takes a private jet at taxpayer expense to St. Simons Island, an exclusive resort where he owns land. The trip, like many of the 26 flights Price took on corporate jets, could have been accomplished with a routine commercial flight.
8/21 Mnuchin and his wife travel to Kentucky aboard a government plane, at a cost to taxpayers of $33,000, to watch the solar eclipse.
8/30 EPA chief Pruitt spends $43,000 to build a soundproof phone booth in his office, enabling him to hold secret conversations with lobbyists and corporate executives. The Government Accountability Office is investigating whether the move violated agency spending rules.
9/29 HHS Secretary Price is forced to resign over the nearly $1 million in taxpayer money he spent taking military planes and private jets, often to visit family and friends.
A scandal EPA chief Scott Pruitt may not be able to survive
By Steve Benen April 2, 2018
FILE PHOTO: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks during a meeting held by U.S. President Donald Trump on infrastructure at the White House in Washington,…Kevin Lamarque
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s latest scandal came up during a roundtable discussion on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, and it led to an interesting exchange between George Stephanopoulos and former Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.).
STEPHANOPOULOS: Does he have to go?
CHRISTIE: Listen, I don’t know how you survive this one. And if he has to go, it’s because he never should have been there in the first place.
The former Republican governor, who was briefly tapped to lead Donald Trump’s transition team before being replaced the week after the election, had a series of related concerns, which seemed to be part of an effort to avoid blame for the president’s mess.
But at the heart of the message was an important observation: common sense suggests the EPA chief’s scandal will cost him his career. The traditional political rules sometimes don’t apply in the Trump era, but in this instance, I think Christie’s correct.
As we discussed on Friday, the first sign of trouble came when Pruitt took a first-class trip to Morocco late last year – it cost $40,000 and you paid for it – in order to have the EPA chief pitch “the potential benefit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports on Morocco’s economy.”
Why the head of the EPA would make economic energy recommendations to foreign countries was unclear. The answer, however, soon after seemed to come into focus.
The only LNG export plant in the country hired a lobbyist, and Scott Pruitt lived in a Capitol Hill condo – for $50 a night, far below market value – in the Capitol Hill home owned by the lobbyist’s wife.
And in case the story weren’t quite alarming enough, ABC News also reported on Friday afternoon, “The Environmental Protection Agency paid a Capitol Hill condo association $2,460 after Administrator Scott Pruitt’s security detail broke down the door, believing he was unconscious and unresponsive and needed rescue, ABC News has confirmed.”
Apparently, Pruitt was napping at the time.
The same report added the EPA chief’s adult daughter also lived there during her time as a White House intern last year.
Pruitt was already one of the most controversial members of the president’s cabinet, but this mess is almost certainly the most serious scandal of his tenure. Or as Chris Christie put it, “I don’t know how you survive this one.”
Postscript: The energy lobbyist in question is J. Steven Hart. If his name sounds at all familiar, it’s because Hart is also assisting the NRA in its controversy surrounding foreign assistance it’s accused of receiving.
Comments:
Lebowsky Dude: Scott Pruitt in the EPA is a scandal, republicans absolutely violated their pledges to this country by confirming him, and every single day this cretin remains in the government is a bad day…
Lebowsky Dude: To put this into context, its a scandal that many members of congress were found to be sleeping in their offices because of the high cost of housing in Washington DC… To have this loser getting a special deal from a lobbyist is actually criminal if you ask me…
jazzbeau
Pruitt was napping… Evidently destroying the environment is tiring work. Another interesting attempt at lessening the the scope of this graft is Pruitt saying he only used one bedroom (as most people do), sounds like only wanting to pay for the seat you occupied on a chartered jet.
The scandals surrounding EPA administrator Scott Pruitt continue to grow. Credit: Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post via Getty Images
These changes are not just damaging to those trying to address climate change. In our view, burying climate science diminishes our democracy. It denies the average citizen the information necessary to make informed decisions, and fuels the flames of rhetoric that denies consensus-based science.
It’s been a helluva few days for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Scott Pruitt. Photographer: T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg
The fight against smog was one of many factors that made California a national and global leader in environmental protection. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images
Top this, Ben Carson. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow
Photo: Tony Millionaire
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
Trump’s resort in Miami. Photo: The Washington Post/Getty Images
From left, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Donald Trump, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and Melania Trump. Photo: Clint Spaulding/WWD/REX/Shutterstock
3/20 Eric’s wife posts a photo on Instagram of the family’s weeklong ski vacation in Aspen. Taxpayers were charged $330,000 for security details and another $200,000 for luxury lodgings.
2/20 Donald Jr. tours India to sell Trump-branded homes; several newspapers run an ad promising a “conversation and dinner” with him — for an additional fee of $30,000.
1/19 During his confirmation as Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin fails to disclose a hedge fund he registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying federal taxes — the very thing he is supposed to collect as Treasury secretary.
Betsy DeVos. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
Carl Icahn. Photo: CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Trump and Alex Azar. Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Eric Trump and Don Trump Jr. Photo: Phillip Chin/Getty Images for Trump Internati
8/21 Mnuchin and his wife travel to Kentucky aboard a government plane, at a cost to taxpayers of $33,000, to watch the solar eclipse.
FILE PHOTO: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks during a meeting held by U.S. President Donald Trump on infrastructure at the White House in Washington,…Kevin Lamarque
Lebowsky Dude: Scott Pruitt in the EPA is a scandal, republicans absolutely violated their pledges to this country by confirming him, and every single day this cretin remains in the government is a bad day…