EPA Whistleblower: Pruitt Was ‘Lying’ to Congress About Never Punishing Staffers Over Spending Critiques

A former deputy chief of staff for the Environmental Protection Agency says that Scott Pruitt lied when he testified before Congress last week and took questions about his various ethics scandals.

When Pruitt appeared before the House Energy and Commerce and Appropriations committee, he denied reports saying that he demoted Kevin Chmielewski after the former top staffer criticized his expenses over the last few months. In an interview with ABC News, Chmielewski disputed Pruitt by calling it “bald-faced lying,” and he recalled a conversation with a manager who told him “Administrator Pruitt either wants me to fire you or put you in an office so that he doesn’t have to see you again.”

Chmielewski has spoken to various members of Congress about Pruitt’s conduct in recent weeks, raising ethical concerns about the administrator along the way. Most notably, the former chief of staff recently offered details about Pruitt’s exorbitant travel spending and stays at luxury hotels.

Chmielewski believes he was forced out of the EPA’s top brass when he refused to approve first-class flights for one of Pruitt’s other aides:

“I refused to do it. And, once again, I think that was some of the beginning of the retaliation, and why you know, cause I said absolutely not. And I kinda got in trouble behind closed doors for not signing that. Just Kevin, “Sign it. You know, be done with it.” And the last thing I was doing was signing off on that.”

Pruitt still has President Trump‘s approval, and he pushed back at the allegations of his unethical conduct by calling them “twisted” distortions of the truth. Even so, Chmielewski is standing by the accusations against the EPA chief, claiming that he was involved in the process of how Pruitt got that $43,000 soundproof phone booth for his office.

[Image via screengrab]

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