How could you not know your 'long time associate and friend" lobbied your department on behalf of the biggest soft drink company, the Chinese owned largest pork producer in the world and one of the biggest disasters of 2017? Pruitt is guilty of lying to Congress, to our representatives, to us and should, MUST, resign.
At a May 16 hearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, the embattled EPA chief erroneously insisted that Hart had not lobbied the government last year.
“Erroneously insisted”? I’m not the language police, but where I come from -that’s a lie. A flat-out lie. Come on, AP. You’re journalists…I’m sure you can find the right words and phrases to most accurately portray the story. Sorta your job.
Pruitt also spent a couple of thousand on some custom silver pens to give away to his cronies—rather elegant bribery.
This was a direct violation of federal employee policies.
Pay-2-Play and yet crickets…
A Cabinet Secretary can be impeached by Congress per Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution. Come on, Congress! Do your job!
That’s charitable.
“The Coca-Cola Company is committed to the highest level of integrity in all aspects of our business, and we expect our lobbying firms to uphold that same commitment,” the statement said.
“All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.”
The Book of Bokonan
Why does Pruitt act entitled beyond mere arrogance? He knows how much money and regulatory work he is saving his masters??
He’s an Oklahoma Republican.
He’s also a paranoid, selfish, grifting, oleaginous asshole with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
You obviously know nothing of my home state’s politics. I suggest you get a copy of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and read it. The politicians of that time set the bar for most who followed.
The “hydrofluorocarbons” Coca-Cola lobbied about aren’t just problematic gasses, that broad class includes perfluorocarbons like PFAS (e.g. Scotchgard and Teflon) that contaminate water supplies…and this lobbying occurred before the EPA tried to bury that report recommending lower levels of “safe” contamination.
As a middle manager (not at the godlike level of Pruitt) in a federal agency many years ago, our chief of contracting sent me a firm “cease-and-desist” memo because I included a $2.50 package of fountain pen cartridges for myself (I prefer that to ball points, and never asked the agency to buy my pens) in an office supply order for my organization.
I should have aimed much higher.
Rather than saying Pruitt “erroneously insisted” that Hart had not lobbied the federal government in 2017, AP should say what really happened, i.e., Pruitt falsely stated that Hart had not lobbied the federal government despite the fact that Hart’s former firm has confirmed that Hart did, in fact, lobby not just the federal government generally but he specifically lobbied the agency that Pruitt heads.
If there is evidence that Pruitt knew his statement was false at the time he made it, then a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 would be appropriate. There was a time when I thought I could be confident that DOJ (which includes the FBI) would investigate something like this to see whether there was evidence that Pruitt knew his statement was false when he made it. Unfortunately, with Sessions as AG, I no longer am confident that DOJ will look to see if there is such evidence, and I think there is a possibility that even if someone else were to provide that evidence to DOJ the AG still might not approve a prosecution.
“The Coca-Cola Company is committed to the highest level of integrity in
all aspects of our business, and we expect our lobbying firms to uphold
that same commitment,” the statement said.
It almost sounds like Coca-Cola had doubts about the integrity of their lobbyist. We are definitely through the looking glass.
Pathetic
Republican
Unalterably
Incorrigible
Trumpian
Toady
LOCK this GRIFTER UP!
Yes, and I shame and boycott companies who gorge themselves at the trough of corrupt deregulation… Companies like Murray coal and the chlorpyrifos pesticide industry.