Ex-EPA Head Scott Pruitt Spent $124,000 On Improper Flight Upgrades, Department Won’t Ask For Reimbursement

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General has announced that former EPA head Scott Pruitt spent $124,000 on unnecessary first- and business-class flights over the course of ten months in 2017. Pruitt resigned seven months later as a result of the various scandals surrounding his unethical abuse of taxpayer money.

Pruitt frequently made stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to his own private residence. The total cost of his many flights amount to over $950,000 in EPA money, all of it paid for by the ordinary taxpayer. More than three-quarters of the flights that Pruitt took were in first class. Furthermore, Pruitt and his team repeatedly flaunted EPA and governmental regulations for spending, sometimes paying double what they were supposed to for lodgings and hotels. The ex-EPA head also used noncontract air carriers without justification, as well as submitting inaccurate and incomplete international trip reports.

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This information was revealed by an internal investigation into Pruitt and his spending that resulted from several congressional inquiries into the EPA head. In addition to his absurdly expensive flights, Pruitt often abused his position in other expensive ways, such as sending his entire detail to pick up moisturizer from the Ritz-Carlton hotel, spending $3,000 on a dozen fountain pens and journals, and spending $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth.

“Let’s hope the federal government sends Scott Pruitt the bill for his clueless self-indulgence,” said the Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project Eric Schaeffer, “Mr. Pruitt enjoyed luxury travel while proposing to eliminate nearly a third of EPA’s workforce.”

Surprisingly, the EPA has no plans to ask Pruitt to repay the costs to the government.