Let's walk through a day's worth of headlines in today's episode of "As the World Turns at the EPA." It starts with this bombshell letter detailing allegations against Pruitt by a TRUMP aide who joined EPA. Some outrageous stuff nytimes.com/2018/04/12/cli…
Here is that letter, if you want to read it in full. A classic, in the cannon of lawmaker letters to the administration. documentcloud.org/documents/4436…
Within minutes, another letter. This one claiming that Pruitt may have as many as FOUR federal government email accounts and that FOIA officers at EPA are perhaps not checking the less well known accounts, when responding to FOIA requests. documentcloud.org/documents/4436…
So then, the Senate moves to take up the nomination of Andrew Wheeler, who until last year was a lobbyist for MURRAY ENERGY, the coal mining company that has written a to-do list for EPA Administrator Pruitt re rolling back Obama era climate change/clean air rules. 
.@CoralMDavenport stepped in from The NYT for a very smart story on that move. nytimes.com/2018/04/12/cli…
The Senate confirmed Wheeler at 3:56 p.m. by YEAs 53 and NAYs45 vote. The DAY IS STILL EARLY FOLKS. Here is the roll call, for anyone who wants to study it.
So my colleagues @kenvogel @LFFriedman and I had been hustling all week to report out a piece on Nino Perrotta, who Pruitt named as the new head of his security detail after he was confirmed--after Nino's boss refused to drive Pruitt to restaurants in DC with the sirens going.
Let's walk through Nino's story here for a few minutes. First, turns out Nino has his own security contracting firm on the side, called Sequoia.
Nino set it up so that one of the partners at his firm got a contract to do a security sweep of Pruitt's office. Here is the contract document, in case you want to see it.
What we found out is that Nino served as a facilitator, who fed on a certain paranoia that Pruitt brought with him to the EPA, pushing for more security. See Nino there, with pin on his lapel behind Pruitt nytimes.com/2018/04/12/cli…
Looks like Politico was working on a similar piece, as a few hours after ours posted, Politico has their own Nino story. It is at the top of their website now. (Sorry, I like ours better) politico.com/story/2018/04/…
But the Politico piece has some great details too: Nino Perrotta, Pruitt's security chief, boasted that he let women hold his gov’t-issued firearm in romantic situations. “It was, in some ways, like a dangerous, forbidden sex toy to some, & I played right along.”
Now, all of this comes just after @LFFriedman and @kenvogel had this gem of a story posted on Wednesday but in Thursday's paper on Pruitt and his debate over the right design for his own challenge coin nytimes.com/2018/04/11/cli…
Who will ever forget this line
E&E News also posted this piece today. A December trip to Morocco by Pruitt could benefit Carl Icahn, who holds a controlling stake in the largest U.S. natural gas exporter and who helped Pruitt secure his position in President Trump's Cabinet eenews.net/stories/106007…
There was one bit of good news for Pruitt today. His former landlord, the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist, had their public relations guy call me today to challenge a fact in the Dems letter. He paid his rent, although late. But no scratches on the Capitol Hill condo floor.
And that is all folks, for today's episode of "As the World Turns at the EPA." But be ready, tomorrow is Friday the 13.
