Former EPA staffer: Refusal to OK first-class flight for Pruitt aide prompted firing

A former top EPA staffer says he was pushed out of the agency after he refused to retroactively approve the first-class travel of one of Administrator Scott Pruitt's closest aides. Kevin Chmielewski, who previously worked as the deputy chief of staff for operations and handled many of Pruitt’s travel and logistics coordination, told Democratic lawmakers this week that Pruitt had requested his aide, Samantha Dravis, the head of EPA's Office of Policy, join him in first class on a return flight from Morocco in December, where Pruitt went to promote U.S. natural gas. Chmielewski, a former Trump campaign staffer, told the lawmakers he refused to sign paperwork justifying Dravis' first-class travel after the fact "because it violated federal travel regulations," the Democrats wrote in letters to Pruitt and President Donald Trump on Thursday. He said another EPA staffer eventually signed off on the travel retroactively. Chmielewski said that his refusal to bless Dravis' upgraded travel after the fact "appears to him to have been the final straw that caused you to remove him," the lawmakers wrote to Pruitt. Ryan Jackson, Pruitt's chief of staff, subsequently informed Chmielewski that Pruitt "wished to fire or reassign him." The head of Pruitt's security detail, Nino Perrotta, allegedly asked for Chmielewski to give up his government credentials when he returned to the agency after an unrelated overseas trip with Vice President Mike Pence. Chmielewski also detailed several other allegations against Pruitt regarding his controversial travel, condo rental, large raises given to favored aides and even the administrator's heavy spending to redecorate his office. “The new information provided by Mr. Chmielewski, if accurate, leaves us certain that your leadership at EPA has been fraught with numerous and repeated unethical and potentially illegal actions on a wide range of consequential matters that you and some members of your staff directed,” the lawmakers wrote to Pruitt in asking for more documents. The letters were signed by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.). source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/former-epa-staffer-pruitt-first-class-478291 #Headlines by: aguillen@politico.com (Alex Guillén)

Original Post: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/former-epa-staffer-pruitt-first-class-478291