Top aides for embattled EPA administrator Scott Pruitt resign
Amid ongoing turmoil at the Environmental Protection Agency, two of administrator Scott Pruitt’s top aides have submitted their resignations, two EPA officials said.
Millan Hupp and Sarah Greenwalt, loyalists from Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma, both had benefitted from large raises earlier this year, according to a report issued by the EPA's inspector general. Sources told ABC News on Wednesday that both Hupp and Greenwald had resigned.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee also released a letter on Monday showing that another of Pruitt's schedulers, Millan Hupp, helped him find a new apartment and even contacted the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., about purchasing a mattress for Pruitt. Hupp confirmed in the transcribed interview that she helped Pruitt during her personal time, but emails released by the Democrats show that Hupp emailed a realtor on Pruitt's behalf during the workday on at least one occasion and using her EPA email address. It is unclear why Hupp and Greenwalt resigned.
The resignations were first reported by The New York Times.
In a statement to ABC News, Pruitt thanked Hupp for her work at the agency and said she would be “sorely missed.”
“I’ve had the opportunity to know Millan for the last several years as a colleague, friend and trusted partner,” Pruitt said. “I wish her all the best.”
As ABC previously reported, an investigation from the EPA’s inspector general revealed that Pruitt’s Chief of Staff, Ryan Jackson, directly oversaw and approved the pay raises for Sarah Greenwalt, Hupp and Hupp’s sister, Sydney Hupp, the latter who left the agency last year.
Greenwalt received a raise of over $50,000, which would have brought her salary to more than $164,000. and that a nearly $30,000 raise was approved for Millan Hupp, which would have brought her salary to more than $114,000.
Shortly after the raises became public, Pruitt told Fox News in an interview that he didn't know anything about the raises and that he had taken action to reverse them. But Pruitt later told a congressional committee that he gave a top aide permission to give at least two EPA employees big raises, deviating from how he characterized authorization for these raises in the past.
In her testimony provided the House Oversight Committee, Hupp said she spent several hours a week at work discussing housing accommodations for Pruitt with realtors and visited at least 10 properties on behalf of Pruitt, who asked her verbally to assist him in finding housing options, according to the testimony.
Hupp also said that she reached out the managing director of the Trump International Hotel in D.C. on Pruitt's behalf to see about acquiring an old mattress from the hotel for Pruitt’s personal use.
An EPA official said Hupp’s last day will be Friday, June 8, and a source said Greenwalt’s resignation will take effect in the coming weeks.
