Scott Pruitt's lease originally had J. Steven Hart's name printed on it as the landlord, but someone crossed it out and wrote in the name of his wife. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Lobbyist whose wife rented to Pruitt lobbied EPA despite denials An agency official acknowledges the meeting happened but denies it met the definition of lobbying.

The prominent lobbyist whose wife rented a condominium to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt lobbied the agency while Pruitt was leading it, contrary to his and Pruitt’s public denials that he had any business before the agency, according to a Friday filing by his firm.

The disclosure from the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen contradicts Pruitt's public statement last month that the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, had no clients with business before the EPA, and came hours after Hart’s resignation from the firm.


An EPA official acknowledged on Saturday that Pruitt had met with Hart, who attended a meeting with a former meat processing executive concerned about President Donald Trump's proposal to cut spending on a Chesapeake Bay cleanup program. But the official argued that the meeting didn't meet the definition of lobbying.

A second EPA official, agency spokesman Jahan Wilcox, told POLITICO: “We have no knowledge of any facts that precipitated Williams & Jensen electing to make this filing.”

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The disclosure is the latest sign of one-time allies distancing themselves from Pruitt, whose job is in jeopardy because of multiple investigations into his stewardship of the agency, ranging from spending on a 20-person security team and first-class travel to the installation of costly office furniture and a soundproof phone booth. The Government Accountability Office said earlier this week that the purchase of the booth, which cost $43,000, violated federal law. And the staff of House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) has interviewed a former EPA political appointee who alleges that Pruitt lied about not knowing about steep raises given to two of his top aides.

When asked late Friday about Hart’s lobbying activities, a Gowdy spokeswoman told POLITICO that 'the Committee has already been looking into this matter.'"

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a statement Saturday that any evidence of deception about Pruitt's relationship with the lobbyist-turned-landlord would bode ill for the EPA administrator.

"It doesn't get much swampier than an agency head getting a sweetheart deal on rent from a lobbyist with business before his agency, but someone lying about it afterwards does make it worse," Whitehouse said. "The laundry list of Pruitt scandals grows."

Hart announced he would resign from Williams & Jensen hours before the firm filed a disclosure showing that he lobbied the EPA for Smithfield Foods in the first quarter of 2017. While Hart, the chairman and former chief executive of the firm, has disputed that the contact he had with Pruitt and Pruitt’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, constituted lobbying activity, the disclosure indicates otherwise.

Hart lobbied the EPA on issues "relating to support for EPA Chesapeake Bay Programs," according to the disclosure.

Pruitt told Fox News earlier this month that “Hart has no clients that have business before this agency.”

Smithfield paid Williams & Jensen, which has lobbied for the company for years, $70,000 to lobby on a variety of matters in the first quarter, according to the disclosure filing. Hart also lobbied Congress on trade, agriculture and food safety issues on Smithfield's behalf during the first quarter, alongside other Williams & Jensen lobbyists.

But Smithfield said Hart's lobbying of the EPA "was not undertaken at the direction of or on behalf of Smithfield Foods."

"These activities were conducted at the request of a then former executive and current Smithfield Foundation board member, Dennis Treacy, in his personal capacity," the company said in a statement. "Mr. Treacy is associated with several environmental organizations and is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission."

Treacy had been Smithfield's chief sustainability officer, as well as president of the nonprofit Smithfield Foundation, and before that had led Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality.

The first EPA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pruitt and Jackson, his chief of staff, met with Treacy and Hart on July 11 for 20 minutes in Pruitt's office. That's backed up by a chain of agency emails obtained by POLITICO, which show Treacy requesting a meeting in May to discuss his "focused and unique view of environmental protection" with Pruitt, and one finally being scheduled for July 11.

On July 10, Hart wrote to Jackson that he wanted to attend the meeting at Treacy's request. Hart added that Treacy "is a good guy and can be trusted. He is coming in as the business rep on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation — another of your controversies."

But the disclosure filed by Williams & Jensen indicates that Hart's lobbying work took place in the first three months of this year, not in 2017.

The official said Hart set up the meeting as a "personal introduction" but that Treacy used a Smithfield email address, which may have prompted Williams & Jensen to consider the meeting lobbying activity on behalf of Smithfield. Treacy wanted to talk about the president's proposed budget cuts to EPA's spending on Chesapeake Bay, the subject of one of the nation's premier ecosystem restoration projects, the official said.

The official said Pruitt discussed his meeting with Hart with EPA staff before going on Fox News for an interview this month, where Pruitt maintained that Hart had no clients with business before the agency. But "it has been clear in [Pruitt's] mind for months now this was a personal introduction of an individual who was supportive of the administration, who wanted to meet the administrator."

Smithfield Foods has had a tangled history with Chesapeake Bay: In 1997, a federal judge slapped the company with a record $12.6 million fine for violating the Clean Water Act by dumping hog waste into a bay tributary. But Smithfield is now listed as a corporate partner of the nonprofit Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

Pruitt’s rental of the Capitol Hill condo — a relative bargain at $50 a night — had attracted criticism even before the filing because Hart has lobbied on energy issues in the past. Hart is also a past political donor to Pruitt, contributing a total of $4,366 in cash and in-kind services to the former Oklahoma attorney general's campaigns and leadership PAC.

Pruitt’s lease originally had J. Steven Hart’s name printed on it as the landlord, but someone crossed it out and wrote in the name of his wife, Vicki. Public records show Vicki Hart’s name on both the mortgage and deed. (Vicki Hart is also a lobbyist but works primarily on health care issues.)

Hart was already planning to retire in November but moved up his departure in the wake of the revelation that his wife has been Pruitt’s landlord.

“Considering the last couple of weeks, I think it is easier on my family and the firm to expedite my departure,” Hart wrote on Friday afternoon in an email to family and friends that was obtained by POLITICO.

Williams & Jensen confirmed Hart’s departure.

“Mr. Hart informed the firm of his decision to resign today,” the firm said in a statement on Friday. “We are grateful to Steve for his 35 years of service and we wish him and his family well in all of their future endeavors.”

Hart did not respond to a request for comment. But he was sharply critical of the news coverage of the Pruitt scandal in the email he sent on Friday.

“As you know, these days I am no more an energy lobbyist than I am an astronaut,” Hart wrote. “But, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?”

After leaving the firm, Hart wrote that he was “looking forward to devoting myself to an independent legal practice, some strategic business counseling for a few clients, golf, and shooting (not in that order).”

Alex Guillén and Emily Holden contributed to this report.