Republished with permission by Knowhere News
Scott Pruitt, facing multiple federal ethics inquiries, resigned as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator on Thursday.
President Donald Trump, previously one of the former Oklahoma attorney general’s most ardent defenders, announced the resignation on Twitter. “I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,” Trump wrote, before adding that Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler will assume duties as acting administrator on Monday.
Trump announced the move shortly before a speaking engagement in Great Falls, Montana. The president added that Pruitt had done “an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him.”
The embattled EPA chief’s resignation seems to have been motivated by increased scrutiny over his professional and personal life in light of multiple recent scandals. Pruitt was hired on at the start of the Trump administration but has been embroiled in a laundry list of allegations of ethics violations for months — a source of public embarrassment for an administration aiming to “drain the swamp.”
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Reports regarding Pruitt’s security costs, travel spending, misuse of government resources, and dealings with industry lobbyists have led to serious ethical questions surrounding his leadership of the agency.
Pruitt most recently faced questions regarding his spending habits at the agency and was accused of using EPA resources to give his wife a six-figure salary job. Two of his employees resigned on May 1 amidst the ethics investigation.
Pruitt has denied wrongdoing in the face of several congressional and oversight inquiries.
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