WHAT DOES SCOTT PRUITT WANT WITH A USED HOTEL MATTRESS?

…The wasteful EPA Secretary, Scott Pruitt

More evidence that Pruitt used EPA employees for personal use.

OK, those of us that follow those Unicorns in Washington DC, we are very aware of the excesses of the current EPA Secretary, Scott Pruitt, such as his $40k+ secure and private phone booth in his office, his use of both First Class and private charter jets for his business travel, his going over his budget by tens of thousands of dollars on his company car, his office furniture and the use of his assistants for his private business.

Well, now he has gone and done it again.  But this time in a very bizarre situation.

It has now been reported that the same Pruitt senior aide, Millan Hupp, that scouted apartments for her boss in the hippist DC neighbors, that helped arrange his family vacation in California so he could watch the Oklahoma Sooners play in the Rose Bowl, this same Ms. Hupp was directed to contact the Trump International Hotel in Washington, across the street from the EPA,  with an unusual request.  Millan Hupp called the hotel to ask how much they would charge EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, to buy one of its used mattresses....?

Yes, Ms. Hupp has reported in an interview that she was looking for a discounted, Trump branded, “Trump Home Luxury Plush Euro Pillow Top” mattress.

Pruitt’s request to ask his subordinate to locate his cheap, used bedding, was outlined in a letter from two of the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) and Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), to the panel’s chairman, Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).

According to two former EPA employees, Pruitt has also instructed aides last year to arrange work-related trips in August so that he could either be on the road or working from his home in Tulsa rather than pay for an apartment rental in the DC District that month.

The Oversight Committee is conducting a probe of several spending and management decisions Pruitt has made since taking the helm of the EPA. Those include that First-Class travel and the unusual rental arrangement he had with a lobbyist for nearly half of 2017.  This was an agreement in which Pruitt only paid $50 a night to stay at the lobbyist Capitol Hill condo.  (A lobbyist that just happened to have on-going business in front of Pruitt’s EPA.)  Cheap rooms in the DC area usually go for more than $150 a night.

Citing the new information that surfaced during Hupp’s interview, Cummings and Connolly asked that the chairman “issue a subpoena to obtain documents that are currently being withheld by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relating to Administrator Scott Pruitt’s multiple abuses of authority in using agency staff for his own personal purposes.  If Ms. Hupp’s statements to the Committee are accurate, Administrator Pruitt crossed a very clear line and must be held accountable” .

Hupp described her work for Pruitt as requiring a number of personal tasks, including booking non-work flights with his personal credit card.  This was stated during a closed-door interview with Republican and Democratic aides from the House panel. Hupp said she recalled that Pruitt “had spoken with someone at the Trump hotel who had indicated there could be a mattress he could purchase, an old mattress he could purchase,” and that Pruitt “had expressed interest in securing a used mattress” .

Hupp said that she did not recall what resulted from the inquiry, but was asked to confirm that “it was not for use at EPA,” she replied, “Not to my knowledge.”  So, it was apparently another personal request to an EPA subordinate.

Amanda Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Gowdy and the Oversight Committee, said the committee will wait until the end of its investigation to release its findings.

“To date, the Committee has conducted several transcribed interviews and obtained 2,350 pages of documents as part of our investigation into mismanagement and spending at the EPA. This month, the Committee will interview additional witnesses and receive additional document productions,” she said. “Selectively releasing portions of witness interview transcripts damages the credibility of our investigation and discourages future witnesses from coming forward.”

Trump-branded mattresses used to be available more widely when they were manufactured by Serta and sold in department stores such as Macy’s. But Serta, along with other companies that had paid to license Donald Trump’s name, halted that merchandising business once his political rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign sparked negative controversy. Serta terminated its partnership in July 2015.

Asked whether she took leave from work when she occasionally looked during office hours at properties for the Pruitts, Ms. Hupp told committee staffers, “I did not.”

So, once again, Ms. Hupp was doing personal business for Mr. Pruitt, and the American tax payers were paying for her efforts.

Copyright G.Ater  2018