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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a meeting between US President Donald Trump and carmakers in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 11, 2018.

Kerner writes that the report “included evidence that Pruitt directed an agent to ‘recklessly’ use lights and sirens while driving against oncoming traffic so that Mr. Pruitt could pick up his dry cleaning when he was already 35 minutes late to an EPA meeting.”

He adds that the agent did not believe that he could refuse the order.

“Can you guys use that magic button to get us through traffic?” Pruitt asked his driver in another example included in the report.

One agent “described how awkward it is in the car when the Administrator is saying ‘speed it up,’ and ‘we need to get there quicker,’ " according to the report. “That is direction from the head of the Agency, and it is hard to disobey.”

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Surrounded by security agents, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (2nd R) steps out of his armored SUV as he arrives to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment Subcommittee outside the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. The focus of nearly a dozen federal inquiries into his travel expenses, security practices and other issues, Pruitt testified about his agency’s FY2019 budget proposal.

Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general, is now running for Senate in that state.

Heresignedfrom his position at the EPA in July 2018 after months of ethics controversies after the Senate confirmed him in February 2017.

Politicians — from both parties — as well as environmental groups raised questions about his spending and lavish travel practices along with his use of multiple email accounts and round-the-clock security detail.

Pruitt “engaged in improper and excessive spending of agency funds on travel and security; used his official position for his personal benefit and the personal benefit of certain E.P.A. staffers; and endangered public safety,” according to the letter from Kerner, who wrote that the investigation substantiated whistleblowers' claims initiallyrevealed in 2018.

The accounts of the use of lights and sirens on government cars and erratic driving had not been previously reported,according toThe New York Times.

Interviewed for the investigation, a deputy chief of staff for Pruitt said “extreme speed and lights and sirens were utilized” while driving from the White House to the EPA offices, a trip of about four blocks.

The deputy chief of staff described the use of lights and sirens as “overly obnoxious, excessive, and more dangerous to everyone.”

When one member of Pruitt’s security detail refused to turn on the lights and sirens because running late was not an emergency and it was against policy, the EPA head was “visibly upset and was silent for an uncomfortable time in the car,” according to the report.

The agent was later let go, the report states.

source: people.com