EPA Head Pruitt seeks damage control

What was said, what was revealed, in the first half of EPA's Scott Pruitt's conference, and why did he want to delay the news from reaching the public ?


Remarks by Pruitt as well as an explanation of the science of PFAS from the director of the EPA’s Office of Pollution Protection and Toxics and a representative from the American Chemistry Council, the main trade association for the chemical industry.


https://thinkprogress.org/epa-bans-reporters-chemical-summit-38df2278334a/


The relevant chemicals are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl, which are used in some nonstick coatings, in firefighting foam and elsewhere. The chemicals can cause developmental defects and some other serious health problems and the authorities say the contaminants are present in dangerous levels in some water systems, including several near military bases and industrial sites.


https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...pa-summit-on-harmful-water-contaminants#img-1

The study, which has still not yet been released by the Trump administration, finds the chemicals can cause health problems and developmental defects at levels far below what the EPA officially considers to be safe.


Pruitt employed a Trump distraction technique. The media picks up on the story of abused reporters, and the real news of extensive poisoned drinking water is left trailing behind in the dust.

They sent a spokesperson out to lie to the press-

"This was simply an issue of the room reaching capacity, which reporters were aware of prior to the event,” {plausible deniability ? Capacity for the amount of people present, not the amount of press allowed ?} EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement to Mother Jones. “We were able to accommodate 10 reporters, provided a livestream for those we could not accommodate and were unaware of the individual situation that has been reported."




Emails recently released under the Freedom of Information Act show Pruitt’s staff going to great lengths to limit public access to the administrator over the last 16 months. EPA staff determined whether reporters belonged to “friendly” and “unfriendly” outlets, and discussed strategies for blocking the so-called unfriendly press from events.


https://www.motherjones.com/environ...erally-shoved-a-reporter-out-of-the-building/



“The public, media, and Congressional reaction to these numbers is going to be huge,” one unidentified White House aide said in an email forwarded on Jan. 30 by James Herz, a political appointee who oversees environmental issues at the OMB. The email added: “The impact to EPA and [the Defense Department] is going to be extremely painful. We (DoD and EPA) cannot seem to get ATSDR to realize the potential public relations nightmare this is going to be.”


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/14/emails-white-house-interfered-with-science-study-536950

https://splinternews.com/pruitts-epa-apparently-blocked-nightmare-study-about-wa-1826015924

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt cannot change the facts, so he is smothering the truth.


The study that Scott Pruitt feared, hit the airwaves, hit the screens of TV and internet, landed in the press.

Last defense of cowards- gag the witnesses, lie and deny.

Which trusted news media outlet is carried in the printed and virtual world, nationwide ? Associated Press is usually first, usually correct, and has the biggest inter connected network, and largest resource. They send qualified journalists that can interpret and extract, no matter which speciality, or field.

CNN's lifeblood is a constant stream of news. CNN has time to do in depth studies, and in depth discussion.

Pruitt lied, when they said there was no room in the conference space. Reporters and journalists that were allowed into the conference, saw that there were spaces for more news cameras and journalists.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...n-event/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.53faac555202

When the AP reporter refused to leave the building, security guards physically forced her exit and “shoved” her out the building’s door.

After reporters took to Twitter to complain, the agency eventually backtracked and allowed the three journalists to attend the afternoon session of the conference.


It's unclear at this time why Pruitt’s government-sponsored goons went after these specific news organizations, but it might have something to do with their coverage of his bald-faced public corruption and his near-daily assaults on the environmental safety he was sworn to protect.


https://slate.com/news-and-politics...tly-and-thugishly-ejected-from-epa-forum.html


Miranda Green
✔
@mirandacgreen
HUGE:

In my inbox: "EPA is opening the second portion of today PFAS Leadership Summit to press. "

12:17 PM - May 22, 2018

Scott Pruitt is secretive, evil, and corrupt. He is hostile toward the press, for using their legal freedom to inquire and report on what he does.

Look at the pic in this article, and tell me how friendly he is, to press that seek to clarify.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/ap-reporter-forcibly-removed-from-epa-building.html



Punishing news outlets for publishing unflattering information seems in character for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who is currently facing 12 different investigations into various forms of unethical behavior. Pruitt, after all, prefers not to be asked any unexpected questions, and runs an agency that has taken a sneering, Trumpian tone toward the media.

Who was allowed to enter the conference ?

Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Hill, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BNA, and ,The Daily Caller.


Personal vendetta of Pruitt


In September of last year, the EPA’s press office sent out a press release titled “EPA Response To The AP’s Misleading Story,” which accused AP reporter Michael Biesecker of writing an “incredibly misleading story” about Superfund sites and Hurricane Harvey. The EPA did not, however, contradict any facts in Biesecker’s story.

https://thinkprogress.org/epa-bans-reporters-chemical-summit-38df2278334a/

A bit of nasty tactics

Pruitt has his own version of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to lie for him


EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told the journalists they had not been invited to the summit and there was not space for them. Wilcox told NBC News the agency provided them with a livestream.


He claimed the AP reporter threatened "negative coverage" if she was not allowed to attend the event, but also that he was "unaware of the individual situation that has been reported."

Emily Holden
✔
@emilyhholden


As I was walked into the chemicals summit at EPA today, a security guard joked about how she warned @KnickmeyerEllen that she couldn't film as she was being told to leave the agency and barred from entering the event https://apnews.com/d799f4e096cc42cf99ae01b02d1e0688 …

10:55 AM - May 22, 2018



A climate reporter for Politico tweeted Tuesday that a security guard joked about how he told an AP reporter she could not film as she was being kicked out of the agency building.

(The previous articles mention empty seats, and empty spaces provided for cameras, that were never filled.)Who was allowed to film ? Were there prior agreements about what would voluntarily be censored ?

Pruitt had personal hostility, to attack Ellen Knickmeyer

Being a Trump loyalist, he had (orders ?) to harass her, and blackball her from conferences-

She is a concise and precise reporter on Middle East issues and environmental issues

Such as Trump's unsightly involvement, concerning Qatar

https://www.apnews.com/a3521859cf8d4c199cb9a8567abd2b71


May 1, 2018

She put her own name on letterheads, and took personal responsibility for stories under her name.

Gasp! Accountability, openness, and responsibility! Three three things Pruitt shrinks from.


May 1, 2018


The two top officials in charge of security and toxic-waste cleanups at the Environmental Protection Agency have abruptly left their jobs, days after EPA administrator Scott Pruitt told lawmakers that his subordinates were to blame for alleged ethical lapses that have prompted more than a dozen federal investigations of the agency


At House hearings last week, Pruitt weathered six hours of scathing questions, criticism, and a couple calls from congressional Democrat to resign over the steady flow of news reports and announcements of new investigations involving alleged ethical lapses at his agency.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/po...A-Aides-Leave-481392641.html?akmobile=o&nms=y

How was she characterized by the EPA ?




Ellen Knickmeyer
@KnickmeyerEllen
·
3h
FWIW, I didn't push anyone or anything. I stood there, asked for a public-affairs staffer to come down to talk about getting in to cover meeting


Emily Holden
@emilyhholden

EPA’s Wilcox says AP was told event was full “but proceeded to push through the security entrance. When we were made aware of the incident we displaced stakeholders to the overflow room who flew to Washington for this meeting so that every member of the press could have a seat


(photographic proof that there empty seats in two locations)

Pruitt's Private Summit ?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...s-multiple-news-outlets-water-pollution-event



Ellen Knickmeyer Retweeted


Emily Holden
@emilyhholden
·
4h
Today’s session of EPA’s chemicals summit is federal and state/local regulators only. We have asked for it to be open to the press. We have also asked for a statement about why EPA does not think this violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act


Not only is the American public not allowed to see who is involved with decisions concerning our health ,we are not allowed to hear what is said by state officials ?


Some citizens have a very high stake in this matter.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20180521/pease-water-activist-to-meet-epa-chief-scott-pruitt



Levitsky and Ziblatt identify four common tactics: disrespect for the Constitution, delegitimizing political opponents, tacit endorsement of violence as a political tool, and a willingness to restrict the civil liberties of the press. They document how the Trump administration has set off all four of these alarms, and Tuesday’s incident at the EPA fits neatly into their schema. Not since the Nixon era has an administration selectively excluded members of the press corps deemed to be hostile.

http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/05/23/scott-pruitt-epa-donald-trump-frederick-hewett

The AP must certainly be on Trump's shit list of media outlets he does not like


Wonkette has been watching Elliott Broidy

AP scoop last night piecing together Elliott Broidy’s leaked emails to reveal the extent of their scheming to turn the Trump Administration against Qatar are probably not news to the Russia investigation. But they are news to us, and juicy news at that!

Well, you will be FOR SHOCKED to hear that the Saudis and Emiratis made Jared Kushner for a giant fucking idiot!


More fuckery

https://wonkette.com/634224/wait-what-with-broidy-guy-and-qatar-well-splain-you-easy


The Associated Press has been watching Elliott Broidy

Lifting the Lids on Pots, and looking at what is cooking, inside

Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men.

https://apnews.com/a3521859cf8d4c199cb9a8567abd2b71


The AP conducted an exhaustive review of the emails and documents, checking their content with dozens of sources, and determined that they tracked closely with real events, including efforts to cultivate the princes and lobby Congress and the White House.

http://www.businessinsider.com/geor...le-east-uae-qatar-saudi-arabia-mueller-2018-5

The Wall Street Journal published a story claiming that this David Dennison, in the NDA signed by Shera Bechard, was none other than Elliott Broidy — despite its being precisely the same pseudonym Trump had used in the Stormy Daniels NDA.


Identity of Non disclosure agreement signatures


https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-...ment-for-top-republican-fundraiser-1523638726



Daily Beast reports, after years of trying with almost no success to obtain federal military contracts, in 2017, Broidy’s company, Circinus LLC, received millions of dollars in defense work. The Trump presidency has been very good to Broidy, and he may have also been very good to President Trump himself.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-trump-scandal-figure/?utm_term=.a0032cb58cfd


Influence on International Policy


Broidy had multiple meetings with Trump, in which he urged the president to support the Saudis and Emiratis against Qatar. American policy toward Qatar has been erratic; Trump supported the Saudi/UAE blockade of Qatar, but we haven’t removed our military base.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-trump-scandal-figure/?utm_term=.a0032cb58cfd

December 2, 2017, Trump would not get back to the White House until 4:45 p.m., but he still found time in his busy schedule that day for one more meeting. That get-together was with a wealthy Republican fundraiser and lobbyist, Elliott Broidy.


After a year spent carefully cultivating two princes from the Arabian Peninsula, Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, thought he was finally close to nailing more than $1 billion in business.


Broidy and his business partner, Lebanese-American George Nader, pitched themselves to the crown princes as a backchannel to the White House, passing the princes’ praise — and messaging — straight to the president’s ears.


December 2017, Broidy was ready to be rewarded for all his hard work. It was time to cash in.


Broidy got his payoff: The U.A.E. awarded his company a deal worth up to $600 million over the next five years.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...-broidy-was-covering-for-trump-in-affair.html


More Evidence That Broidy May Have Been Covering for Trump in That Playmate Affair

May Just two days before that meeting, on November 30, Broidy wired $200,000 from his Bank of America account to Real Estate Attorneys’ Group, a California firm. On December 5, REAG transferred that money to attorney Keith Davidson. Davidson was at the time supposedly representing the legal interests of Shera Bechard, a Playboy model with whom Broidy now claims to have had an affair. (Bechard fired Davidson shortly afterward, when she became convinced that Davidson was actually working in concert with Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, to protect Cohen’s client’s interests rather than hers.) That $200,000 was supposed to be the first of eight quarterly payments that “David Dennison” agreed to make to Bechard, in order to buy her silence about an affair and a subsequent abortion. All this was laid out in an NDA recovered from Michael Cohen’s office when it was raided last month.


The first payment from Broidy came two days before the meeting that apparently helped him ink a nine-figure deal with a foreign country — a deal based in no small part on his access to, and influence on, Trump. If it’s difficult to imagine Broidy being willing to take the fall for Trump’s affair with Bechard and then paying her a seven-figure sum, it’s much simpler to imagine it simply as a perfectly timed and fantastically profitable bribe.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the only hard evidence for Broidy’s claim that his payoff to Bechard wasn’t actually a straight-up bribe of the president of the United States continues to be Broidy’s own assertions. (My repeated attempts to get Bechard’s current attorney, Peter Stris, to comment on this matter have been unsuccessful.) Journalists — including those AP reporters who pulled together such a remarkable and important story — might want to be cautious about taking Broidy’s word on the matter at face value.