CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Probe Finds—Come On—Only One Email to Outside EPA in Pruitt Outbox?

Implausible number has watchdogs questioning how he’s really communicating.

A probe of under-fire Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s government email accounts has uncovered just one single message sent from him to anyone outside the EPA in his first 10 months in office, leading watchdogs to question if he’s communicating government business privately. The official Pruitt account record was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club. The EPA attempted to explain the curious Sent folder by saying Pruitt tends to hold discussions in person or over the phone. However, given the secrecy surrounding a range of Pruitt’s other actions at the agency—such as refusing to release his meeting calendars and installing a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office—critics say the meager number is completely implausible and he must be communicating in another way. “The emails, if they exist, could show what these people want and then those emails could be compared to what the EPA does,” said Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at watchdog American Oversight. “Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it’s doing it, and who’s influencing those decisions.”