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Senators press Pruitt for details on new legal defense fund

In this May 16, 2018 photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appears before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies on budget on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)
By Ellen Knickmeyer Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Four Senate Democrats asked Scott Pruitt on Monday for details about a new legal defense fund to help the Environmental Protection Agency administrator as he weathers a series of federal ethics investigations.

Pruitt confirmed at a Senate hearing last week that people he did not identify have created the legal defense fund in his behalf, but he gave no specifics on its operation. Officials typically use such funds to help cover any legal bills for themselves and sometimes for others.

Under questioning last week from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Pruitt said, “Yeah, absolutely” when Van Hollen asked him to commit to refusing any donations to the fund from lobbyists or companies with business before the EPA.

Neither Pruitt nor the EPA has made public any other information about his defense fund since then. Pruitt is the subject of probes by the EPA’s inspector general, the Government Accountability Office, Congress and others investigating allegations about his spending, relationships with lobbyists and other matters.

In a letter from Van Hollen and three other Senate Democrats, the lawmakers asked Pruitt within 10 days to provide all the documents that went into setting up the defense fund, and any communication involving the EPA’s ethics office about the fund.

Asked by The Assocaited Press for information about Pruitt’s defense fund, Cleta Mitchell, the Washington lawyer reported by the Washington Post to have handled setting up the fund, responded by email, “No.”

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox did not respond to an AP email asking for the contact of someone who could comment on the fund.

The senators – Van Hollen and Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tom Carper of Delaware – asked Pruitt to commit to publishing a monthly list of donors to the fund. The four senators are members of committees on Capitol Hill with oversight authority over EPA.

They also asked Pruitt to respond to 14 questions about the fund. Those included whether EPA employees or their spouses would be allowed to give to it; what involvement the EPA’s ethics office would have overseeing the fund; and whether the fund would abide by the federal Office of Government Ethics’ guidelines of $50 annual limits on gifts from any one person.

“Without further clarification of these issues, your legal defense fund may lead to more complaints that you may be violating the public trust,” Van Hollen and the other senators wrote. “We believe a person in your position should regularly and publicly disclose all donors to a legal defense fund” to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

When it comes to legal defense funds for members of the executive branch, rules by the Office of Government Ethics are guidelines, lacking direct enforcement power, experts in government ethics and financial disclosure law told the AP. Guidelines include recommendations that officials avoid accepting anonymous gifts.

“They are very tricky entities and present potential for abuse,” said Lawrence Noble, general director of the Campaign Legal Center and former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission. “There’s too much leeway in terms of what they allow.”

Tax laws and government codes on what kind of gifts officials may accept govern some aspects of the funds, depending on how a particular one is set up.