EXCLUSIVE: More Cabinet trouble for Trump? EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist 'power couple' [View all]
Source: ABC News, via David Fahrenthold
EXCLUSIVE: More Cabinet trouble for Trump? EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist 'power couple'
By JOHN SANTUCCI, MATTHEW MOSK STEPHANIE EBBS Mar 29, 2018, 11:22 AM ET
For much of his first year in Washington, President Trumps EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist, property records from 2017 show.
Neither the EPA nor the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, would say how much Pruitt paid to live at the prime Capitol Hill address, though Hart said he believed it to be the market rate. The price tag on Pruitts rental arrangement is one key question when determining if it constitutes an improper gift, ethics experts told ABC News.
I think it certainly creates a perception problem, especially if Mr. Hart is seeking to influence the agency, said Bryson Morgan, the former investigative counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics. Thats why there is a gift rule.
Hart confirmed to ABC News in a brief interview that Pruitt had lived in the flat, which is owned by a limited liability company that links to an address listed to Hart and his wife Vicki Hart, a lobbyist with expertise in the healthcare arena. Steven Hart said Vicki Hart co-owns the condo. He said his wife was not the majority owner, but would not identify her partners. ... I have no ownership interest, he said. Obviously, I know the owners.
....
ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Ali Dukakis contributed to this report
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-cabinet-trouble-trump-epa-chief-lived-condo/story
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
EXCLUSIVE: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has spent much of his first year in Washington living in a townhouse one block from the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by wife of a top energy lobbyist. https://abcn.ws/2Gi2ZSp
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