Last year, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt overhauled EPA's advisory boards, banning scientists who received EPA funding and replacing many of them with employees of energy companies and state agencies | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Major Trump donor helped Pruitt pick EPA science advisers

A prominent GOP donor and President Donald Trump supporter helped EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt choose the head of the influential scientific body charged with reviewing EPA's regulations, according to newly released documents.

Doug Deason, a Dallas businessman, submitted a list of names of candidates for Pruitt's Science Advisory Board in August that had been supplied by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, on whose board he serves.


Deason and his father, Darwin Deason, donated over $900,000 in 2016 alone to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates. His influence over the SAB appointments is the latest example of the high-level access that politically powerful conservatives have to the EPA administrator. Deason is known to be a friend of Pruitt's.

Deason and his wife have also been donors to the Koch brothers' network of organizations that raise money for Republicans running for state and national office.

Last year, Pruitt overhauled EPA's advisory boards, banning scientists who received EPA funding and replacing many of them with employees of energy companies and state agencies. The new emails, released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Sierra Club, show that some of those appointments were made at the suggestion of campaign contributors and oil and coal industry officials.

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Deason's full list, which EPA did not provide, was drafted by Kathleen Hartnett White, a TPPF fellow whose nomination to run the Council on Environmental Quality flopped in the Senate after a poor showing in her confirmation hearing and her lack of scientific credentials. She had drawn fire from environmentalists and Democrats for comments dismissing climate change and downplaying the dangers of pollutants like smog.

Reached via email, Deason acknowledged that he had made the recommendations. And he did not believe Pruitt's job at EPA was in danger, saying he "is out of the woods from what I have been told by contacts in the White House. Time to move on [to the] real story." EPA did not dispute that Deason was involved in the process, but said others put forward nominations too.

Pruitt has regularly sought to build connections with top GOP donors, including some whose businesses are heavily regulated by EPA. He has huddled with Steve Chancellor, a coal executive who raised over $1 million for Trump, POLITICO reported. And he sat in coveted courtside seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game with tickets from billionaire coal magnate and Republican funder Joe Craft, whose wife is Trump's ambassador to Canada, The New York Times has reported.

Deason’s top recommendation to Pruitt was Michael Honeycutt, a toxicologist at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who was subsequently appointed to lead the Science Advisory Board, which counsels the agency on how it uses science to write regulations and is currently reviewing sweeping rule changes Pruitt is implementing. Honeycutt has been a critic of EPA's regulations, and cast doubt on its assessments of the dangers of mercury, arsenic and ozone pollution.

According to internal emails, Deason told Pruitt’s then-scheduler Sydney Hupp in May 2017 that Pruitt “asked that I help them add a few experts on a new proposed Science Advisory Board.” EPA didn’t publicly request candidates until June.

Months later, Deason forwarded White’s list to Pruitt’s chief of staff Ryan Jackson. TPPF Executive Director Kevin Roberts said White “especially recommends Dr. Michael Honeycutt of the TCEQ,” and attached his bio first.

EPA argues Honeycutt was not chosen on Deason's recommendation alone, saying in an emailed statement from a spokesman that “he is a well-qualified and respected toxicologist, he has been nominated by multiple people and considered for EPA science advisory committees for the last several years.”

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen, said Deason's influence in the process "raises serious concerns."

"That should have been a merit-based process of selection and not based on the wishes of personal friends and major party donors," Holman said. "It's a sad reflection of what we're seeing going on throughout the Trump administration. Trump values millionaires and billionaires and those who are very wealthy as being the type of people who are running our government, so that's who he listens to — it's really a takeover of our government by the very wealthy."



Deason's initial email to Hupp about the science boards was sent before he met with Pruitt on May 18, an appointment that the agency never disclosed. Deason also set up a meeting that day between Pruitt and his business partner Roy Bailey, the managing director at his private equity firm. The Dallas Morning News has reported that Bailey was also a major fundraiser for Trump.

Bailey brought along executives from Intrexon, a biotechnology company whose subsidiary now has a proposal before the agency to deploy genetically engineered mosquitoes to reduce the population of Zika-carrying mosquitoes in South Florida.

Bailey set up the meeting as a personal favor for the company’s CEO, R.J. Kirk, who is a friend, Intrexon said.

“I truly believe that Scott and his team would benefit greatly from meeting with RJ,” Deason told Hupp. “If Scott and/or Ryan Jackson have any time I would really appreciate it if they would give RJ 15 mins or so. They will learn a lot!”

Pruitt’s public calendar lists the meeting with Intrexon but does not note Bailey’s attendance. The administrator’s more detailed internal calendar item for the meeting, obtained under pubic records laws, lists Bailey and Intrexon executives, but not Deason.

The records noted that Intrexon's technology, which was previously under the FDA's jurisdiction, "will fall under the purview of the EPA."

Asked about the donors' role in the meeting, the EPA spokesman said "Administrator Pruitt meets with a wide range of regulated stakeholders and these meetings are no different.”

Deason has been a staunch supporter of Pruitt during his recent scandals, and has pressed his White House contacts to keep Pruitt at EPA, suggesting that if reports that Trump chief of staff John Kelly was pushing for his ouster, then Kelly “has no spine,” according to Bloomberg.

He also helped book Pruitt as a speaker at a TPPF and Heritage Foundation event in Washington on Nov. 30, emailing Pruitt and Jackson directly.

Jackson thanked Deason for “the help on the science boards,” noting in an email in October that they would be announced in the next few weeks. And Deason followed up after the announcement, writing, “Great news on the Science Boards, Ryan. Scott knocked it out of the park yesterday.”

The American Petroleum Institute also put forward six of its own recommendations for various science boards, and two of those ultimately landed positions advising EPA: Merl Lindstrom, the vice president of technology for Phillips 66, and Robert Merritt, a retired geoscience manager from oil giant Total SA. API Director of Federal Relations Hilary Moffett in August sent the list of candidates to Jackson and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Research and Development Richard Yamada.

Separately, Betsy Monseu, head of the American Coal Council, recommended two of the group’s members who were not ultimately picked. The organization itself did not take an official position, but Monseu emailed her names to EPA air office adviser Mandy Gunasekara in July.

The EPA spokesman said the agency had more than 700 applicants for its science boards and sought a "wider range of voices to weigh into" the selection process and now has "highly qualified" boards that are "independent and geographically diverse."