Cummings asked Stone for copies of communications with Pruitt related to his purchase of the Rose Bowl tickets. “Renzi Stone, a friend of Administrator Pruitt and regent to the University of Oklahoma, simply connected Pruitt to the athletic department. Pruitt purchased the tickets at face value from the OU athletic department.
The Office of Special Counsel has launched a new investigation into how Pruitt handled his aides and whether he used his office for political reasons, according to the Times.
President Donald Trump offered a mix of praise and frustration for his embattled EPA administrator Friday amid new questions over whether Scott Pruitt misused his office.
“I’m looking at Scott and Scott’s done a fantastic job at EPA, but . I’m not happy about certain things, I’ll be honest,” Trump told reporters during impromptu remarks on the White House lawn Friday morning. “I’m not happy about certain things, but he’s done a fantastic job running the EPA, which is very overriding."
Trump did not specify what about Pruitt was making him unhappy. The administrator is facing at least a dozen investigations over his travel expenses, sweetheart condo deal and allegations that he used EPA aides to conduct personal business for him.
The latest allegation came earlier Friday in a letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee: Pruitt asked an aide to contact an Oklahoma energy consultant to help him get tickets to last year’s sold-out Rose Bowl game.
Renzi Stone, the founder of marketing and communications firm Saxum, which represents clients in the oil and gas industry, helped Pruitt in his role as a member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents. He said Friday that he and Pruitt have been friends for 17 years, and that he does not lobby EPA. Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s former scheduler at EPA, told Oversight committee staff that Pruitt had sought Stone’s help, according to a partial interview transcript reproduced in his letter.
Cummings asked Stone for copies of communications with Pruitt related to his purchase of the Rose Bowl tickets. Pruitt was able to purchase the seats under a special allotment from the University of Oklahoma at face value just five days before the sold-out game. Around that time, tickets on the resale market were going for as much as seven times what Pruitt paid, the New York Times reported Friday.
"Federal ethics rules prohibit government employees from accepting gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, unless they pay ‘market value,’" Cummings wrote. "Moreover, a government employee may not accept a gift provided ‘because of the employee’s official position.’"
Stone acknowledged helping Pruitt.
"Each year mid-Dec people call for OU bowl tickets. Scott Pruitt, my friend since 2001, asked through an aide if he could buy Rose Bowl tix. I made connection to OU ticket office," Stone wrote on Twitter. "He bought them. That’s it. I’ll respond to Rep. Cummings…we don’t do any work for clients at EPA."
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox defended the arrangement.
“It seems Representative Cummings is misconstruing the facts,” Wilcox said in a statement. “Renzi Stone, a friend of Administrator Pruitt and regent to the University of Oklahoma, simply connected Pruitt to the athletic department. Pruitt purchased the tickets at face value from the OU athletic department. To report otherwise, is false.”
The Times also reported Friday that Pruitt had multiple aides help secure his daughter a White House internship last summer and leaned on the former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, William Howell, for a letter of recommendation for his daughter to law school in that commonwealth.
The Office of Special Counsel has launched a new investigation into how Pruitt handled his aides and whether he used his office for political reasons, according to the Times. That independent investigative agency did not respond to request for comment.