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For Immediate Release
May, 07 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Adam Beitman, adam.beitman@sierraclub.org or 202-670-5585
PRUITT EXPOSED: Sierra Club Secures 24,000 Pages of EPA Emails, Call Logs and Documents
Bombshells abound in giant trove of senior agency communications.
WASHINGTON
The Sierra Club has secured over 24,000 pages of EPA emails, calls logs, and documents which expose the culture of corruption in and around Scott Pruitt at the EPA through successful litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The release comes in the wake of today's White House briefing, during which Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the White House has confidence in the EPA's #2, but failed to say whether it has any confidence at all in Scott Pruitt. Instead, the only reference to Pruitt was that "I don't have any personnel announcements at this time."
*** THE FULL SET OF DOCUMENTS, IN SEARCHABLE FORMAT, IS ONLINE HERE ***
Among the lowlights:
- Confirmation from staff that, indeed, "Le Diplomate is his favorite!" [Sydney Hupp Doc, Page 1131-1132]
- Confirmation of endless meetings between senior political aides and corporate polluters [See, in particular, the Samantha Dravis Document correspondence and meetings]
- Revelations that Pruitt and two staffers had dinner at the Luxurious Hotel Eden in Rome while there for work (Raising questions of if they had the EUR280 per person "Harmony Tasting Menu with Wine Pairing"? -- and, if so, who paid?). [Millan Hupp Document, Pages, 676-682 & 800-810]
- Emails details more fishy connections between Pruitt fundraisers, prominent Oklahoman business people, climate denial organizations abroad and more. [See the Sydney Hupp Document, Pages 1312-1316, detailing interactions between Pruitt staffer Sydney Hupp, Todd Dobson, Tamara Hyatt Cornell, Paul D. Tosetti and the Global Warming Policy Foundation, UK.]
- Lengthy emails detailing the extent to which a former lobbyist planned every detail of Scott Pruitt's trip to Australia [Millan Hupp Documents, Pages 45-56; 51; 170-176; 275-279; 332-333; 619-620]
- According to the New York Times, "the documents provide new indications ... that the concern with secrecy is less about security than a desire by Mr. Pruitt to avoid criticism from detractors or even unexpected questions from allies."
- More corroborating evidence of the involvement of Richard Smotkin in planning Pruitt's Morocco trip. [Millan Hupp Document, Pages 112-113; Page 364; 431-434; 439-441; 529-531; 640-642]
- AND... FAR, FAR MORE.
In Response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune Released the Following Statement:
"Under the law these documents should have been forthcoming, but we had to take Pruitt to court to get them, and now it's clear why. These documents expose a deeply rooted culture of corruption surrounding Scott Pruitt and his dealings in essentially every aspect of his job. Scott Pruitt doesn't live in the swamp -- he is the swamp -- and he should resign, or be fired immediately."
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SIERRA CLUB'S FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT & GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY WORK
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
(415) 977-5500LATEST NEWS
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More than 100 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives helped Republicans send what would be the country's first major cryptocurrency law to the desk of President Donald Trump, despite warnings that the legislation would not only further his corruption, but also "expose our financial stability, national security, and consumer protections to greater risk."
All but a dozen voting Republicans and 102 Democrats—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.)—supported the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which last month passed the Senate 68-30, with support from 18 Democrats.
If signed by the president, as is expected, the bill would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, which are pegged to the value of existing assets such as the U.S. dollar. The Trump family's World Liberty Financial has issued the stablecoin USD1.
@housedemocrats.bsky.social Shame on all of you. You have no foresight and no backbone.
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— Jodi Jacobson (@jljacobson.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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Leading House Democratic opposition to the GOP's package is Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who warned last week that "these bills would make Congress complicit in Trump's unprecedented crypto scam."
As Politico detailed Thursday:
Waters and other Democrats called for presidential ethics provisions to be added to the bills, pointing to the Trump family's business entanglements in the crypto industry. Trump and his sons have stakes in several crypto ventures, including a company they launched last year that issues a stablecoin and could benefit from the GENIUS bill that is now awaiting the president's signature.
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After Thursday's vote, Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, declared that "today, House members piled venality onto perversion onto corruption. In approving this crypto-enabling bill, Congress surrendered to the onslaught of crypto political spending and legitimized the world's biggest Ponzi scheme."
"To add insult to injury," Naylor added, "they also forfeited an opportunity to stop Trump's massive crypto grift, some of the most heinous and flagrant corruption in American presidential history."
RM @repmaxinewaters.bsky.social slams Republicans’ UNSTABLE Act:“The UNSTABLE Act creates the appearance of a federal framework for #stablecoins, but it does not provide the Federal government with the full authority it needs.” | tinyurl.com/5t2skxvnWATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWy...
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— U.S. House Committee on Financial Services - Democrats (@ushousefsc.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 1:23 PM
In addition to sending the GENIUS Act to Trump, the House advanced two other crypto bills on Thursday: the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which would create a regulatory framework for digital asset markets, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
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As one unnamed CMS employee told the AP, "They are trying to turn us into immigration agents."
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However, undocumented immigrants are barred from receiving federally funded Medicaid coverage.
The only exception is emergency Medicaid, which covers lifesaving services and which the government requires to be extended to anyone who needs it regardless of status—though this makes up just 1% of overall Medicaid spending.
Some states have also expanded Medicaid to include noncitizens not covered by the federal program. However, that money comes from state budgets rather than the federal one.
Last month, President Donald Trump demanded that CMS hand over the personal data of the millions of Medicaid enrollees in the seven states that allow noncitizens to apply, a move that dozens of states sued to prevent.
At the time, the government justified it as a measure to simply root out fraud and abuse. But under Monday's agreement, the AP says, the Department of Homeland Security "will use the data to identify, for deportation purposes, people who [are] in the country illegally."
However, nearly everyone enrolled in Medicaid is either an American citizen or other legal resident.
Given that the president has made very clear his intent to begin denaturalizing and deporting American citizens, the handing of tens of millions of people's sensitive information to ICE is causing widespread alarm.
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404 Media reported Thursday that in May, a hacker targeted the airline that operated the flights, which have been challenged in court by groups including the ACLU and Democracy Forward.
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The outlet reported that the family of one of the men who is listed on the flight manifests but whose name has never been reported or acknowledged by the Trump administration, has been protesting his disappearance in his home country of Venezuela.
Keider Alexander Flores Navas' mother, Ana Navas, said in a TikTok video in March that she suddenly stopped hearing from him the day the deportation flights took off—and then saw him in a photo of prisoners at CECOT.
@diariovea 🔵 Ana Navas: Mi hijo no figura en la lista de secuestrados, sé que está en El Salvador por una foto. 🔵 Keider Flores Navas es uno de los venezolanos trasladados a El Salvador. Su madre sabe que está allá por una fotografía en la que lo reconoció. 🔵 Señaló que tiene más de dos semanas y media sin poder hablar con su hijo. #elsalvador #eeuu #venezuela #migrantes #fyp ♬ sonido original - Diario VEA
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