EPA Officials Were Reassigned, Demoted After Questioning Pruitt's Spending: Report

After five Environmental Protection Agency officials—four of them high-ranking—raised concerns “about the spending and management" of Administrator Scott Pruitt, they were “reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year," according to The New York Times. Their concerns ranged from Pruitt's expensive office furniture and first-class travel to requests for a 20-person security detail and a bulletproof vehicle. When the four career employees and one Trump political appointee—Kevin Chmielewski, Reginald E. Allen, Eric Weese, John E. Reeder, and John C. Martin—confronted Pruitt, he “bristled,” according to the report. Chmielewski, who was placed on administrative leave without pay, objected to a “$100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership” for Pruitt and a request to spend $70,000 on two desks in his office suite. Weese, who was head of Pruitt’s protective detail, was moved to another job that gave him less of a say in the administrator's spending. He'd objected to Pruitt’s request to “use flashing lights and sirens in his motorcade” to get to restaurant dinners in Washington, as well as his use of first-class air travel.