Lobbyist Who Rented Room To Pruitt Retires Due To Scandal

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo/AP




By MICHAEL BIESECKER | April 21, 2018 9:40 am

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fossil-fuels lobbyist tied to the bargain-priced Capitol Hill condo leased by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is taking early retirement as a result of the scandal.

J. Steven Hart sent an email to friends and colleagues on Friday announcing he’s leaving Williams & Jensen, the powerhouse Washington lobbying firm where he served as chairman. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the email, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Hart, 64, said he was planning to retire in November, but that the intense scrutiny resulting from the unusual rental arrangement with the head of the EPA led him to expedite his departure.

Media reports first disclosed last month that Pruitt paid just $50-a-night for the condo to a corporation co-owned by Hart’s wife, who is also a lobbyist, triggering several ethics investigations.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/lobbyist-rent-pruitt-retires

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Now Pruitt needs to go...selfish little money grubber and spender of tax payer money ...

like it is his money. God, I wonder what he was like in OK?

[eggplant]

3. I hear there's an opening at Williams & Jensen... :D n/t

[Angry Dragon]

2. Rats running from shady deal

[FakeNoose]

4. I hear he's starting his own Air-BNB outfit in Washington

He'll clean up!

[not fooled]

5. And there's this

It's emerged that he also lobbied the EPA, contrary to his earlier assertions. Heat was gonna get turned up even higher.

(link cross posted from another DU thread on this crook's retirement)

[link:https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/20/pruitt-condo-lobbyist-leaving-firm-543508|]

[link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142043011|]

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. In other words, his firm lobbied (and still lobbies) the EPA, ...

... and in order to keep lobbying without legal hassles, this individual had to throw himself under the bus.

I'm sure his retirement pay, health benefits, etc, etc, are very nice, thanks for taking the fall.

[not fooled]

9. Yeah

the problem with guys like this one and pruitt is not that they are vandals, it's that their vandalism at some point starts attracting attention. Gotta keep the looting going on without riling up the peasantry.

[sharedvalues]

7. Give back the GOP billionaires money now too?

[Crash2Parties]

10. The nice thing about Washington, DC is that

if you get caught in the middle of some wrongdoing, all you have to do is step down. There's an unwritten agreement that no one will go after you for breaking the law once you leave that position. It leads to a total lack of personal responsibility becoming part an parcel of how things are done.

[riversedge]

11. yes, that is true, yet I want #FIREPruitt--he can crawl back to OK!

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Yeah....maybe no t so much with some of them, now.

Ryan is in the thick of Russia stuff. And when it comes to messing with no-no money, he can be charged on the state level, I heard.
People are not keen to look away from some things anymore.

[Crash2Parties]

13. I truly hope so, but it's all a matter of how much gets manipulated & ignored.

If things go south for them, the GOP - and media - may well focus all the attention on Trump alone, leaving the American public to forget just how involved much of the party was in the collusion. If that happens we may well see prosecution of other GOP politicians somehow just not happen. Could also happen through pardons or lawmaking. Our system of law has nothing built in to prevent it at that level as it depends so strongly upon honest elections that result in a government balanced between opposing political parties.