Pruitt says he never asked Trump for Sessions’ job
Embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt has denied a report that he asked President Donald Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and put Pruitt in charge of the Justice Department.
“This report is simply false. General Sessions and I are friends and I have always said I want nothing more than to see him succeed in his role,” Pruitt told Politico in a statement about the report on CNN.
The news network reported Tuesday that Pruitt — who faces more than a dozen ethics and spending probes — appealed to Trump to make the change during an Oval Office meeting this spring.
At the time, the president was feuding with Sessions over the AG’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, according to CNN, which cited three people familiar with Pruitt’s pitch.
The EPA administrator suggested Trump fire Sessions and appoint Pruitt temporary head of the DOJ under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, and that he would then return to Oklahoma to run for office, according to the network.
The act grants the president the authority to temporarily fill a federal vacancy if a previous official “dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office,” CNN reported.
White House advisers promptly shot down Pruitt’s proposal, it was reported.
Pruitt has been buffeted by numerous revelations about extravagant spending, including $1,560 for a dozen fountain pens, $3,000 on “tactical pants” and “tactical polos,” $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth for his office and $120,000 on a trip to Italy.
Meanwhile, a senior administration official told CNN that Pruitt is “inching closer to the tipping point” amid the controversies.
The official, describing Team Trump’s feeling about Pruitt, wondered whether he would still hold his job as he could crop up in Democratic candidates’ ads hitting the president’s “swamp,” CNN reported Wednesday.