Whitehouse Turns Over Documents That Could Get Pruitt Disbarred

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., claiming Environmental Protection Agency Chief Scott Pruitt mislead Congress about the use of different email accounts, is turning over 60-pages of documents to the Oklahoma Bar Association, The Huffington Post reported.

It's a move that could lead to Pruitt's possible disbarment, according to the website.

The controversy stems from Pruitt's use of different email accounts during his six years as Oklahoma's attorney general.

"He said he used just one email, when he actually had two," Alexander Kaufman wrote for the Huffington Post. "He sent official correspondence from a personal address, and appeared to deliberately delay public-records requests to cover his tracks before facing a Senate confirmation hearing."

Whitehouse, who was involved in the confirmation process, is taking action against Pruitt claiming the EPA chief had violated ethics rules.

Whitehouse, who maintained Pruitt misled him during the hearings, is submitting 60-pages of evidence to the bar association to use in its investigation of Pruitt.

"I have had a front-row seat for Mr. Pruitt's misleading testimony and his ongoing failure to respond completely and truthfully to Committee requests for him to set the record straight," Whitehouse wrote in the letter to the bar.

"This conduct is unbecoming of an attorney who is also a public official and who, under law, is required to testify truthfully to Congress."

Whitehouse told the Huffington Post: "He misstated the facts over and over again. This was a case of repeat prevarications, not just an inadvertent slip."

Pruitt had claimed in January he never used his personal email address for official business, the Huffington Post reported. He told Whitehouse that there were "no other email addresses."

"On Feb. 21, four days after he the Senate narrowly confirmed his nomination, the Oklahoma attorney general's office released 7,564 pages of Pruitt's emails under court order following a lawsuit from the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy," Kaufman wrote. "The correspondence showed Pruitt using his personal email for official purposes, contradicting his testimony"

The bar association declined to comment on the case.

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