Scott Pruitt really wanted a used mattress from a Trump hotel.
That’s according to Millan Hupp, a scheduler for the EPA, who was interviewed by the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Hupp said that Pruitt tasked her with calling the Trump International Hotel to see what the rate would be for him to buy one of their old mattresses.
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“As I remember, the administrator had spoken with someone at the Trump Hotel who had indicated that there could be a mattress that he could purchase, an old mattress that he could purchase,” Hupp said, according to a transcript of the interview. “But that’s the extent of the conversation that I can — that I can remember.”
Hupp said she couldn’t recall if the purchase went through.
On top of that, Hupp used a personal credit card of Pruitt’s to book his flight to the Rose Bowl. She also said that she searched for rental properties for Pruitt in Washington and toured several of them, but Hupp insisted that she did most of this on her lunch break.
These are just the latest details in Pruitt’s ongoing scandal at the EPA, where he has repeatedly been accused of misusing public office for private gain. The allegations include using aides, like Hupp, for private tasks while they were on the clock at a federal agency.
House Democrats are alarmed enough by the pattern to ask the committee to subpoena the EPA for Hupp’s communication records to see just how personal Pruitt’s requests became.
Cover image: Getty
