Pruitt's press team trid to plant a damaging story about Zinke's teak to "take heat off Pruitt"
Scoop: A member of Scott Pruitt's press team tried to plant a damaging story about Ryan Zinke's team to "take the heat off" Pruitt. The White House caught him, asked if they had authority to fire him.
As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces a seemingly endless stream of scandal, his team is scrambling to divert the spotlight to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. And the White House isn’t happy about it.
In the last week, a member of Pruitt’s press team, Michael Abboud, has been shopping negative stories about Zinke to multiple outlets, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the efforts, as well as correspondence reviewed by The Atlantic.
“This did not happen, and it’s categorically false,” said EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox.
The stories were shopped with the intention of “taking the heat off of Pruitt,” the sources said, in the aftermath of the EPA chief’s punishing congressional hearing last week. They both added, however, that most reporters felt the story was not solid enough to run. On Thursday, Patrick Howley of Big League Politics published a piece on the allegations; he did not respond to request for comment as to his sources.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/epa-leaks/559607/