Scott Pruitt says he's 'dumbfounded' renting a below-market room from an energy lobbyist is 'controversial'

Scott Pruitt.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is frustrated that people are focusing on ethical questions surrounding his taxpayer-funded first-class air travel and 24/7 security, sneaky raises for two favorite aides, and sweetheart rental deal with the wife of a top energy and transportation lobbyist, rather than on his successes in rolling back environmental protections.

"It's toxic here in that regard," Pruitt told The Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard on Tuesday. He dismissed the flap about his paying $50 a night — only on nights he stayed at the unit — for a two-bedroom Capitol Hill condo partially owned by Vicki Hart, the lobbyist wife of top Washington lobbyist J. Steven Hart, whose firm had business with the EPA last year, according to disclosure forms. "I'm dumbfounded that that's controversial," Pruitt told Bedard. He said Hart "has no clients that are before this agency" and insisted that "if you look at the lease it's very clear it's market value." Steven Hart "talked proudly about the rental agreement with Pruitt," The Washington Post reports, though Hart, too, said he "had no lobbying contact with EPA in 2017 or 2018."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.