

The District of Columbia has fined a company owned by the wife of a D.C. energy lobbyist for renting out its Capitol Hill condo to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt without a license.

In March, ABC News reported that Pruitt had rented the condo at 223 C Street NE for much of 2017. 223 C Street LLC, a company registered to Vicki Hart, the wife of lobbyist Steven Hart, owns the property. Steven Hart’s firm, Williams & Jensen, represents clients in the oil and gas industry.

OpenSecrets contacted D.C.’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) to ask whether the property had been granted a rental license. Hours later, DCRA issued a press release saying the agency was pursuing a $2,034 fine against the company for not having one.

“(DCRA) has reviewed the licensing status of 223 C Street, LLC, which owns the property located at 223 C Street NE, and has confirmed that it does not have a basic business license to operate a single family rental as required by law,” according to the press release. “Therefore, DCRA has issued a Notice of Infraction (NOI) to the LLC for engaging in unlicensed rental housing activity.”

The fine is roughly a third of what the company owes in annual property taxes for the $700,000 unit, property records show.

Pruitt paid $50 a night to stay in the condo in a rental agreement that ended in July 2017, according to an EPA spokesperson.

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It’s unknown whether Pruitt, a former Republican attorney general from Oklahoma, is the only politician to have ever rented the condo from the Harts, who have donated about $1.6 million collectively toward Republican campaigns.

The property is a popular venue for Republican fundraisers, however, according to data compiled at PoliticalPartyTime.org, a Center for Responsive Politics-maintained website that publishes fundraising events.

Those include fundraisers for Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Ted Cruz (Texas), former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), and Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga.

Crapo, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, attended six fundraisers at the property, according to Party Time’s data. Steven Hart’s top lobbying issue is taxes.

Robert Sumner, a spokesperson for Crapo’s office, confirmed the senator attended two of the fundraisers listed in Party Time’s database based on a review of the senator’s calendar — May 24 and Nov. 30.

“(T)he Senator, like other members of Congress, often uses this location for fundraising events because it is located close to his Senate office building,” Sumner said in an email.



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