Things are not looking any better for EPA Chief Scott Pruitt.
A few weeks after Jim Inhofe expressed doubts about Pruitt in a New York Times report, the embattled EPA chief's right hand man and banking buddy, Albert "Kell" Kelly, has left the agency.
Via the Washington Post:
Albert “Kell” Kelly, a top aide to Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt who was hired to revitalize the agency’s cleanup of toxic sites, resigned Tuesday amid scrutiny of his previous actions as the leader of a bank in Oklahoma and his lifetime ban from banking.
Kelly joined Pruitt at the EPA a year ago to head up a task force examining ways to improve and streamline the agency’s Superfund program. Around the same time, as part of a civil settlement, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation fined him $125,000, and it later banned him from banking altogether.
Kelly’s resignation was one of two high-profile EPA departures Tuesday. The head of Pruitt’s personal security detail, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, also announced his retirement from the agency.
Perrotta faces congressional scrutiny for his role in Pruitt’s security arrangements, which have been more extensive than those of previous EPA administrators. He initially had planned to step down this summer but accelerated his retirement, officials said.
Yeah, that's not good. First he lost the full support of his influential political patron, and now his top lieutenants are resigning. I think it's safe to assume that Pruitt may find himself booking a one-way Southwest flight back home to Oklahoma any day now. Remember, he only flies first-class when the government pays for it.
