Former E.P.A. Aide Says Pruitt Asked Her to Help Find Work for His Wife

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Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, preparing to testify at a congressional hearing with a former aide, Samantha Dravis. Ms. Dravis has told investigators that she was asked to help find Mr. Pruitt’s wife a job as a fund-raiser.CreditEric Thayer for The New York Times

By Lisa Friedman

• July 2, 2018

WASHINGTON — Samantha Dravis, the former policy chief at the Environmental Protection Agency, told a congressional committee that Scott Pruitt, the administrator, asked her to help find his wife a job as a fund-raiser at the Republican Attorneys General Association, according to two people familiar with the interview.

The fresh allegation that Mr. Pruitt enlisted a subordinate to perform personal duties comes on top of reports that he asked an aide to seek a business opportunity for his wife from the fast-food franchise Chick-fil-A, and that she received $2,000 from Concordia, a Manhattan-based nonprofit that had asked Mr. Pruitt to speak at an event last year.

Mr. Pruitt, before taking the helm of the E.P.A., was the attorney general of Oklahoma and served two terms as chairman of RAGA, the Republican network for state attorneys general. The request to help his wife, Marlyn Pruitt, a former school nurse, find a job at the organization came during the summer of 2017, the people with knowledge of the interview said.

Ms. Dravis, who then was the E.P.A.’s associate administrator for the policy office, told congressional investigators that Mr. Pruitt hoped for his wife to earn a six-figure salary and asked her help in finding a political fund-raising job with the attorneys’ network.