EPA/SCOTT PRUITT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned after months of ethics controversies, President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday [7-5-18]…An ethics cloud hung over Pruitt for months, as lawmakers from both parties, environmental groups and government watchdogs raised questions about his spending, housing arrangements, security team and raises for political appointees. A spokesman for the EPA’s Office of Inspector General told CNN that ongoing or pending reviews of Pruitt will continue, even though he has resigned..All told, Pruitt left EPA having faced more than a dozen inquiries or reviews into his practices at the agency, including his first-class plane travel, a room that he rented from a lobbyist at $50 per night and the installation of a soundproof booth in his office. But at the same time, Pruitt was one of the most effective implementers of the President’s agenda. Coming into office as a critic of EPA and a climate skeptic, Pruitt moved aggressively to scale back Obama-era moves on climate change, automobile pollution standards and other industrial pollutants.”
-Jeremy Diamond, Eli Watkins and Juana Summers, “EPA chief Scott Pruitt resigns amid ethics scandals,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 5, 2018 4:31 pm