Internal Email Contradicts Scott Pruitt's Account of Controversial Raises

"The EPA administrator has said he “didn’t know” about unusual salary bumps given to a pair of trusted aides, but a message from one of those staffers claims otherwise."

"An email that suggests Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally signed off on a controversial pay raise for a favored aide last month is roiling the agency.

In the last few days, top staffers became aware of an email exchange between one of two aides who received such a raise and the agency’s human resources division. In mid-March, Sarah Greenwalt, senior counsel to the administrator, wrote to HR in an attempt to confirm that her pay raise of $56,765 was being processed. Greenwalt “definitively stated that Pruitt approves and was supportive of her getting a raise,” according to an administration official who has seen the email chain.

A second administration official confirmed the exchange. The email “essentially says, ‘The administrator said that I should get this raise,’” the official told me. Both spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the private correspondence."

Elaina Plott reports for the Atlantic April 9, 2018.

SEE ALSO:

"A New Call For Investigating Pruitt — After Trump Already Offered His Verdict" (Washington Post)

"EPA Chief Of Staff Takes Responsibility For Raises Given To Pruitt Aides" (Politico)

"At Least 5 Probes Underway Into EPA Chief Scott Pruitt’s Conduct" (PBS News Hour)