By Michael Bastasch
When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt heads to Capitol Hill on Thursday, he’s prepared for lawmakers to grill him over his use of multiple email accounts.
Pruitt’s staff prepared him with responses on two dozen subjects surrounding alleged overspending and ethics violations, including “whether he improperly maintained a secret email address, ‘[email protected],’” The New York Times reported Wednesday.
EPA’s inspector general launched an investigation into Pruitt’s email at the urging of Democratic lawmakers in April. Pruitt used four email accounts — one of which is no longer in use — according to EPA. The big question Pruitt faces is whether all his government accounts searched in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.
However, Pruitt’s use of non-public emails is already being compared to former Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s creating a fake identity for her non-public email, in what was seen as an attempt to circumvent transparency laws.
Pruitt’s emails “evokes memories” of Jackson’s alias email account, Bloomberg News suggested. Democrats’ letter over Pruitt’s emails “echoes a controversy in 2012,” The New York Times previously reported, referring to Jackson’s alias email.
