Top EPA official, watchdog engaged in a standoff that inspector general calls a 'flagrant problem'
Source: Washington Post
Environmental Protection Agency officials are in a standoff with the agency’s independent watchdog over a probe of EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson’s efforts to influence a scientist ahead of her congressional testimony.
In a letter released publicly Wednesday, acting EPA inspector general Charles J. Sheehan informed Congress that his office had encountered a “flagrant problem” in light of Jackson’s refusal to cooperate with an ongoing audit and investigation focused on his activities while in office. “To countenance open defiance even in one instance — much less two, both by a senior official setting precedent for himself and all agency staff — is ruinous,” Sheehan wrote.
Agency officials have pushed back at the accusations, arguing that they had sought to accommodate the IG’s requests. “I have neither delayed nor refused to fully cooperate with EPA’s Inspector General,” Jackson wrote in a Nov. 5 letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that was released by the agency. The dispute, which involves two different probes, has escalated to a level not seen in at least six years. One former senior EPA official said that while the office has threatened to notify Congress about disputes multiple times in the past, “generally, cooler heads prevailed before that point.”
The EPA’s Office of Inspector General has launched several probes of top Trump appointees at the agency over the past 2½ years, most of which focused on former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s spending and management decisions. But it closed two of its biggest inquiries without reaching any conclusions a year ago, noting that it had failed to interview Pruitt before he resigned in July 2018.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/07/top-epa-official-watchdog-engaged-standoff-that-inspector-general-calls-flagrant-problem/
= new reply since forum marked as read
But the money quote that underscored the arrogance of appointees, was this part that you posted - “I am not going to involve others or point fingers. … Welcome to Washington."
