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Trump's Former EPA Chief Forced Security To Drive Into Oncoming Traffic To Pick Up His Dry Cleaning

Trump's Former EPA Chief Forced Security To Drive Into Oncoming Traffic To Pick Up His Dry Cleaning
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

A new federal report gives damning details into Republican Oklahoma Senate candidate Scott Pruitt's tenure as EPA Chief in the Runo, during which he routinely endangered his security detail and abused their credentials for petty tasks.

The report, which was compiled in 2018 following a whistleblower report but only released last week by after being obtained by The New York Times.

It details several incidents in which Pruitt "endangered public safety" made his security detail speed and use the sirens on their vehicles to get him through traffic.

In one particularly harrowing incident, Pruitt also made his security detail drive into oncoming traffic so that he could get his dry cleaning before a meeting he was late for.

The report details occasions on which Pruitt asked his security detail:

"Can you guys use that magic button to get us through traffic?"

The security officers in question told investigators that they knew using sirens and lights for non-emergency situations is against federal law, but that they found Pruitt "hard to disobey" because he was routinely late for meetings.

Pruitt's way of speaking to his agents is also detailed in the report, and it paints a picture of Pruitt as an unpleasant person to work for. Security agents reported him routinely telling them to "speed it up" and that "we need to get there quicker."

One aide put a finer point on it, describing Pruitt as "overly obnoxious, excessive and more dangerous to everyone" because of his constant demands to use sirens and lights to get through traffic.

Another said the requests got so out of hand that the agents went so far as to tell each other to disable the sirens and lights in the cars, "because the administrator will still instruct they be used, but the agent can say they don’t work."

The allegations in the report come on the heels of a raft of scandals that plagued Pruitt's tenure as head of the EPA and misappropriations of federal money on private jets and the construction of a sound-proof booth in his home that ultimately led to his resignation in 2018.

On Twitter, people were disgusted by the new revelations about Pruitt.


















This likely won't be the last we hear about Pruitt's tenure at the EPA as he vies for the hotly contested seat of longtime Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, who is retiring.