EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Asked Aide To Get Used Mattress From Trump Hotel

Plenty of ethical controversies have rocked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt in the past several months, the most recent being his search for a used Trump International Hotel mattress.

Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s chief director of scheduling and advance, was asked to contact the Washington hotel to see how much the hotel would charge Pruitt for the purchase of one of its used mattresses. Hupp’s search for a discounted mattress could have been seen as the natural next step to Pruitt, who admitted to having Hupp help him apartment hunt last year.

“I couldn’t comment on specifics of furniture used in his apartment and certainly would not attempt to,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters regarding the matter.

This mattress revelation is only one of several unusual tasks Hupp was asked to perform for Pruitt, all of which have been documented in a letter from top House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and senior panelist Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). The letter, which is published on the committee website, details assigned duties including the apartment hunting and arranging Pruitt’s family trip to California to watch the Oklahoma Sooners play in the Rose Bowl.

The duties assigned to Hupp and other aides likely violate federal regulations prohibiting federal workers from gifts to supervisors and supervisors soliciting that work, according to Cummings and Connolly.

Pruitt has been involved in a variety of ethical controversies this year. He has reportedly racked up millions in security and travel expenses, constructed a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office and rented a Capitol Hill condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 a night.

When asked if these new reports have caused President Donald Trump’s faith in Pruitt to waiver, Sanders said the administration is “certainly looking into the matter.”