The Environmental Protection Agency has released new details about Administrator Scott Pruitt's schedule in Morocco last year that show he was scheduled for only one meeting on the first day of the costly trip.
The Environmental Protection Agency has released new details about Administrator Scott Pruitt's schedule in Morocco last year that show he was scheduled for only one meeting on the first day of the costly trip.
The new details about Pruitt’s schedule came in an updated response to a records request from ABC News and other news organizations on the Morocco trip, which generated controversy both about his spending habits and his justification for being there. Earlier this month, the EPA released the six-page schedule from Pruitt's 47-hour North Africa trip with four pages blacked out.
On Friday, the EPA made public an unredacted version of that schedule after criticism from government watchdog groups about the agency’s lack of transparency.
The newly released version of the calendar showed the four previously blacked-out pages of his calendar did not include any additional meetings beyond those already released.
“The four-page redaction to the Morocco schedule is simply a calendar entry for a Senior Staff Meeting at EPA Headquarters in D.C., which the Administrator did not attend because he was in Morocco," EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement Friday. “The entry includes all attendees invited to the meeting, which is the reason for the extensive redaction.”
Wilcox said Saturday that Pruitt originally had more meetings scheduled that first day in Morocco but his plans changed after weather delayed his flight out of Dulles International Airport on Dec. 9. He did not immediately respond to a request for details about those meetings.
“Due to snow in Washington, Administrator Pruitt’s outbound flight was delayed, he missed his connection in Paris, spent the night there and flew out the next morning," Wilcox said in a statement.