In the latest allegation of Scott Pruitt using his political office for personal gain, former policy chief at the Environmental Protection Agency, Samantha Dravis, revealed to a congressional committee that Pruitt asked her to help find his wife, Marlyn, a job with a six-figure salary.
According to an individual with knowledge of the matter, Dravis told congressional staffers that Pruitt asked her to reach out to the Republican Attorneys General Association—a group he chaired for two terms while he was Oklahoma Attorney General—to look into a possible fundraising job which he believed would pay his wife upwards of $200,000 a year.
Dravis said she declined his request to avoid any conflicts of interest or possible violations of the Hatch Act, designed to limit federal officials’ political activities.
But this isn’t the first time; Pruitt has been faulted for utilizing his managerial position to enlist subordinates to perform personal, non-official duties for him.
The committee inquiry comes on the heels of reports that he asked an aide to seek a business franchise opportunity for his wife from Chick-fil-A, and that Marlyn received $2,000 from a Manhattan-based nonprofit, Concordia.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to investigate Mr. Pruitt’s spending, ethics and management of the EPA, including his luxury travel habits and the circumstances surrounding a condo he rented from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 a night.
“Pruitt is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of examples of how senior government officials, particularly in this administration, abuse their power and their position,” Don Fox, former acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said in an interview Sunday, “and really treat the government’s resources—of which the most valuable are personnel—as personal servants.”
There currently are 13 federal investigations, including the committee inquiry, into Pruitt’s questionable actions in office.