CONFLICT OF INTEREST/EPA/MEDIA/SCOTT PRUITT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The former Secret Service agent who leads the security detail for Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, worked on assignments for the tabloid news publisher American Media Inc. during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to records and interviews. The security official, Pasquale Perrotta, had received a waiver from the E.P.A. under the Obama administration to hold outside employment, but the work has now become the subject of scrutiny in both the agency and Congress. Federal law enforcement personnel face stringent restrictions on outside jobs to prevent conflicts of interest. A.M.I.’s chairman, David J. Pecker, is a friend of President Trump’s, and his publications — The National Enquirer and Radar chief among them — have put an emphasis on helping Mr. Trump and hurting his rivals, including endorsing his presidential bid. The company’s payment in August 2016 to Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump, has been drawn into a federal investigation of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.”
-Kenneth P. Vogel, Eric Lipton and Jim Rutenberg, “Pruitt’s Security Chief Moonlighted for Tabloid Publisher That Backed Trump,” The New York Times online, April 24, 2018