As has become an often-repeated theme, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is again being accused of using his post for personal and familial profit, this time by contacting a Virginia lawmaker to get his daughter into the University of Virginia law school and using his aides to help get her a White House internship.
According to a Friday New York Times report, Pruitt contacted former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates William Howell seeking help in getting his daughter, McKenna, into UVA law. Howell wrote a letter to the dean on her behalf and she was accepted.
A Pruitt spokesperson told the Times that the two were longtime friends and that “letters of recommendation are normal process for an application to law school.”
In a similar incident, at least three EPA aides were told to help get McKenna a White House internship. Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, said that Pruitt told them to “see what they could do” about getting her the internship, and that they were asked to complete tasks completely outside of their professional purview all the time. McKenna did get the internship.
According to the New York Times, EPA aides were also deployed to set up calls with his old donors in Oklahoma and secure tickets to the Rose Bowl, in addition to many other sporting events.
Pruitt, amazingly, still retains President Donald Trump’s support despite the dozens of federal ethics investigations his actions have launched—though on Friday, Trump did concede that he is “not happy about certain things” Pruitt has done.
