This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building in Washington. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to examine the legality of a politically-tinged... (Associated Press) 
 
 This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building in Washington. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to examine the legality of a politically-tinged tweet from the official Environmental Protection Agency account. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Associated Press) 
 
 This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building in Washington. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to examine the legality of a politically-tinged tweet from the official Environmental Protection Agency account. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Associated Press) This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building in Washington. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to examine the legality of a politically-tinged... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Government Accountability Office has agreed to a Democratic senator's request to examine the legality of a politically-tinged tweet from the Environmental Protection Agency, a spokesman for the watchdog agency said Tuesday. 
 
 The GAO will conduct a legal review of the April 13 tweet from the EPA's official Twitter account, spokesman Charles Young said. 
 
 The EPA tweet noted the Senate approval of Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who also served in the EPA under President George H.W. Bush, as the agency's new second-in-command. 
 
 The tweet added, "The Democrats couldn't block the confirmation of environmental policy expert and former EPA staffer." 
 
 Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico asked for the GAO review, calling the tweet "partisan taunting." Udall contended the dig by the EPA-run Twitter account violated a law barring use of government appropriations for publicity or propaganda. 
 
 The review becomes the latest in a succession of federal investigations of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his agency, by the EPA's inspector general, the GAO, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Congress. 
 
 Questioned by Udall about the EPA tweet in a Senate hearing last month, Pruitt said, "I was unaware of the tweet and that shouldn't have occurred. The agency should not have done that." 
 
 Asked for comment Tuesday, the EPA forwarded a May 23 letter by a different federal agency, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, finding the tweet did not violate a separate law, the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job. 

 Three months after Scott Pruitt was sworn in as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, his scheduler emailed Dan Cathy, chief executive of the fast-food company Chick-fil-A, with an unusual request: Would Cathy meet with Pruitt to discuss “a potential business opportunity”? 
 
 A call was arranged, then canceled, and Pruitt eventually spoke with someone from the company’s legal department. Only then did he reveal that the “opportunity” on his mind was a job for his wife, Marlyn. 
 
 “The subject of that phone call was an expression of interest in his wife becoming a Chick-fil-A franchisee,” company representative Carrie Kurlander told The Washington Post via email. 
 
 Marlyn Pruitt never opened a restaurant. “Administrator Pruitt’s wife started, but did not complete, the Chick-fil-A franchisee application,” Kurlander said. But the revelation that Pruitt used his official position and EPA staff to try to line up work for his wife appears to open a new chapter in the ongoing saga of his questionable spending and management decisions, which so far have spawned a dozen federal probes. 
 
 Pruitt’s efforts on his wife’s behalf — revealed in emails recently released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club — did not end with Chick-fil-A. He also approached the chief executive of Concordia, a New York nonprofit. The executive, Matthew A. Swift, said he ultimately paid Marlyn Pruitt $2,000 plus travel expenses to help with logistics for the group’s annual conference in September. 
 
 Current and former EPA aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, said Scott Pruitt told them he was eager for his wife to start receiving a salary. Two said the administrator was frustrated in part by the high cost of maintaining homes in both Washington and Oklahoma. 
 
 EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox declined to comment on Pruitt’s overtures to Concordia and Chick-fil-A on his wife’s behalf . 
 
 Federal ethics laws bar public officials from using their position or staff for private gain. A Cabinet-level official using his perch to contact a company CEO about a job for his wife “raises the specter of misuse of public office,” said Don Fox, who was head of the federal Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration. “It’s not much different [from] if he [had] asked the aide to facilitate getting a franchise for himself.” 
 
 Asking a government scheduler, Sydney Hupp, to plan the meeting also marks a violation of federal rules barring officials from asking subordinates to perform personal tasks, Fox said. “It is a misuse of the aide’s time to ask the aide to do something like this that is really for personal financial benefit.” 
 
 Hupp left the EPA last year; she did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Hupp was not the only EPA employee enlisted to perform nonofficial tasks. Last month, Pruitt acknowledged that Hupp’s sister, Millan, helped him search for housing in the District. She later told congressional staffers that she made inquiries at the Trump International Hotel about buying him a used mattress while she was on the EPA payroll. 
 
 The Georgia-based Chick-fil-A receives about 40,000 “expressions of interest” each year from people hoping to operate one of its restaurants, Kurlander said. 
 
 “The process of becoming a franchisee is very thorough and results in approximately 100 people being selected each year,” she wrote. “We are very proud of the fact that those who are selected demonstrate the leadership ability and business acumen needed to own and operate Chick-fil-A restaurants.” 
 
 Pruitt’s expression of interest began May 16, 2017, according to the released emails, when Sydney Hupp emailed Cathy that her boss “asked me to reach out to you and see if you might be willing to get a time set up for the two of you to have a meeting.” 
 
 Cathy, who has championed socially conservative causes and had met Pruitt during his tenure as Oklahoma attorney general, replied within an hour, connecting Hupp with one of his own aides, Evan Karanovich. 
 
 Karanovich asked whether “an initial phone call would be sufficient” and inquired what the EPA chief wanted to talk about. “The Administrator did not mention a specific topic, but I will touch base with him to see if there is one,” Hupp replied. 
 
 The two sides arranged a conference call for June 23, with Cathy scheduled to be joined by a senior attorney in his legal department. That call did not happen, company officials said, adding that “a call took place later between Administrator Pruitt and a Chick-fil-A staff member.” 
 
 The effort ultimately did not lead to a franchise for Marlyn Pruitt. Kurlander noted that “Mrs. Pruitt is not and has never been a Chick-fil-A franchisee.” 
 
 Around the same time, Scott Pruitt contacted Swift, CEO of Concordia, a nonprofit that brings together leaders from the private and public sectors. Pruitt asked Swift to call Marlyn Pruitt, Swift said in an email, which he did. 
 
 “We discussed her interest in event planning for nonprofits and events that take place in Washington,” Swift said. “Mrs. Pruitt was interested in meeting people in the nonprofit sector, and I offered to introduce her to some of Concordia’s attendees based in Washington and for her to become involved with Concordia’s events.” 
 
 Swift’s group had invited Scott Pruitt to speak at its 2017 conference in Manhattan, the same event where Marlyn Pruitt was paid $2,000 for three days’ work. At the event, Scott Pruitt was accompanied by at least three aides. EPA travel records show his first-class plane ticket cost $1,201.80, and his overnight stay came to $669. 
 
 “Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Pruitt ever solicited a position for Mrs. Pruitt at Concordia, nor was it a condition of the agreement for the administrator to speak,” Swift said. 
 
 The Pruitts’ focus on augmenting their household income appears to have come after the administrator moved to Washington and began paying for two full-time residences. The EPA chief attracted widespread criticism for renting a $50-a-night condo from a Washington lobbyist in the early months of his tenure. Since then, his housing costs appear to have increased substantially. 
 
 According to public records, Pruitt and his wife hold an $850,000 mortgage on their home in an upscale Tulsa neighborhood, requiring monthly payments of approximately $5,500 — including $17,793 in property taxes the couple paid last year. The mortgage has an adjustable rate, records show, so those payments eventually could rise. 
 
 In addition, the Pruitts lease an apartment in a modern development on Capitol Hill where one-bedroom units start at around $3,000 per month. 
 
 As EPA head, Pruitt makes $189,600 a year, according to federal records. In a federal financial form filed after he was nominated to lead the agency, Pruitt listed his only income as his attorney general’s salary, about $133,000 per year. 
 
 Under the entry for spouse’s income and retirement accounts, he wrote, “None.” 
 
 Pruitt’s most recent financial disclosure was due in May, but like many Trump administration officials, he has requested a filing extension. 
 
 Alice Crites and Andrew Ba Tran contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more 
 
 Democrats question if Pruitt’s aide house hunted for him ‘on personal time’ 
 
 Pruitt aide hunted for used hotel mattress, booked personal trips on his behalf 
 
 Amid ethics scrutiny, Pruitt finds his regulatory rollbacks also hitting bumps
– The latest odd revelation in the saga of Scott Pruitt's activities since becoming the head of the Environmental Protection Agency: Pruitt at one point attempted to use "his official position and EPA staff" to get his wife a job, as the Washington Post puts it. That job? Chick-fil-A franchisee. As emails recently released under a Freedom of Information Act request reveal, Pruitt had his executive scheduler email the fast food company's chairman and president in May 2017 to ask if he'd be willing to meet with Pruitt and discuss "a potential business opportunity." Eventually, Pruitt talked to a rep from Chick-fil-A's legal department and explained that what he had in mind was his wife becoming a franchisee, a Chick-fil-A rep confirms to the Post. That never ended up happening, though Marlyn Pruitt did begin the franchisee application. The FOIA request also reveals Scott Pruitt got in touch with the CEO of New York nonprofit Concordia and asked him to call his wife; the group ended up paying Marlyn Pruitt $2,000 and travel expenses for help organizing a conference at which Scott Pruitt spoke, though the CEO says the couple never "solicited a position for Mrs. Pruitt." Current and former EPA aides say Pruitt mentioned his eagerness for his wife to make money and his frustration with the increased cost of having two homes, one in Oklahoma and one in DC. It is a violation of federal ethics laws for a public official to use his position or staff for private gain or to have a staffer handle personal tasks, and a former head of the Office of Government Ethics says Pruitt's behavior on his wife's behalf could be a misuse of public office. Also Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said it would investigate whether a tweet sent from the official EPA account constituted "partisan taunting," the AP reports.