“I can tell you that the president and the White House are aware of these issues and these stories, that they raise some serious concerns, there’s no question about that,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told NPR. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Pruitt must answer questions about possible ethics violations, White House says 'I can tell you that the president and the White House are aware of these issues and these stories,' Gidley says.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will have to answer questions about alleged ethical violations “in short order,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Wednesday, stopping well short of offering a defense of the embattled administrator.

“I can tell you that the president and the White House are aware of these issues and these stories, that they raise some serious concerns, there’s no question about that,” Gidley told NPR. “We’re looking into those questions and concerns as well.”


At her Wednesday briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said conversations regarding Pruitt’s answering questions about allegations against him were “ongoing.” She reiterated that the administration wanted Pruitt to answer the allegations against him but declined to specify what form that response might take.

“We’re evaluating these concerns and we expect the EPA administrator to answer for them and we’ll keep you posted,” she said.

Pruitt has been dogged in recent weeks by allegations of ethical lapses both before and during his tenure leading the EPA. Pruitt’s Washington residence, a $50-per-night condominium on Capitol Hill rented from the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist, has raised ethical concerns, as has his part in the seemingly below-market-rate purchase of an Oklahoma City home from a telecommunications lobbyist in 2003.

The administrator’s spending has also generated controversy, including raises for close aides, security expenses that significantly exceeded those of his predecessors and his insistence on flying first class when traveling for government business.

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While Pruitt has thus far been able to retain his position, his actions have eroded his support on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers have begun to clamor for hearings into the administrator’s alleged ethical lapses. Gidley, in his NPR interview, said the White House wants answers from Pruitt as well.

“We know what’s going on over there. We’ve seen the reports and it raises questions,” he said. “And the EPA and, quite frankly, Mr. Pruitt are going to have to answer those questions in short order.”

But Pruitt's prepared remarks to a House panel released a day ahead of his appearance there did not mention any of his recent troubles, and focused instead on defending the White House's proposals for cutting his agency's budget by one-third.

Pruitt has so far received supportive comments from President Donald Trump largely because he's aggressively pushed to cull Obama-era regulations that the president and conservatives have criticized as an overreach of federal power. Pruitt's prepared remarks hew closely to the theme of working closely with the states and creating a "more efficient and effective EPA by reducing redundancies and improving operations."



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