J. Steven Hart, the lobbyist whose wife, Vicki, rented EPA administrator Scott Pruitt a Capitol Hill condo at a below-market price, has a history of coziness with high-powered government officials. Hart, the chair of lobbying firm Williams & Jensen, was also close with former Republican Congressman Tom DeLay in the late 1990s. Along with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Hart was part of DeLay’s “kitchen cabinet,” a group of lobbyists who helped Republicans raise money, formulate strategy, and exert pressure in Congress. Back then, Hart, who came to D.C. from Oklahoma with the Reagan administration, was “the man corporations call when they’re having trouble with labor unions,” as the Washingtonian described him in 2007. Hart was also DeLay’s personal attorney and — with the same enterprising spirit that seems to have inspired the condo deal — offered his legal services to DeLay for free. According to Steven Brill’s 2003 book, “After,” Hart made this arrangement with DeLay and other members of Congress as a “loss leader” — a marketing term for offerings that are sold below cost because they lead to other business opportunities.

Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP

In the case of Pruitt, many business opportunities have indeed followed the rental last year of Hart’s prime D.C. location. By his own admission, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, whose job is to protect human health and the environment, went to Morocco in December to promote the export of American liquefied natural gas. Cheniere, an energy company that Hart’s firm represented, was the only exporter of liquefied natural gas at the time. Morocco is the only African country with which the U.S. has a free trade agreement. The country recently built a liquefied natural gas terminal. In a televised interview, Pruitt told Fox News that Cheniere is no longer a client of Williams & Jensen. But it’s not just Cheniere that had interests in the Moroccan trip. Williams & Jensen currently lobbies for Exxon Mobil’s natural gas interests, though not before the EPA, according to a company spokesperson. At least 10 companies have interests in the export of liquefied natural gas. Among them is Kinder Morgan, which owns three of the pipelines supplying Cheniere’s liquefied natural gas operation, according to a presentation the company’s executives made in June of last year. The company, which has already greatly benefited from President Donald Trump and Pruitt’s rollback of environmental regulations, is scheduled to open its own liquefied natural gas export facility in Georgia in May 2019. Pruitt met with representatives from Kinder Morgan on December 7, two days before the trip to Morocco, according to Pruitt’s public EPA calendar and a letter that Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent to Pruitt last week. Pruitt has also met several times with Chevron, which also has a stake in the project, according to the Cheniere presentation. The EPA did not respond to emails requesting for comment. But Pruitt told Fox News that the media is focused on this trip because of the effectiveness of his regulatory reform efforts. And an EPA spokesperson insisted that the apartment — for which he paid $6,100 over six months, or about $1,000 a month — was market rate. On Saturday, Trump tweeted his support for this claim, writing that “Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!”

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018