Vitter: Beale Revelations Deserve Further Investigation

EPA fraudster John Beale's deposition shows just the "first layer of a very big onion," says Sen. David Vitter, the Senate Environment Committee's top Republican.

The Louisiana lawmaker is continuing his call for a hearing before his committee to investigate the Beale case, reports Fox News.

Beale was sentenced in December to 32 months behind bars and charged $1.4 million in fines and restitution for pretending to be a CIA agent for decades while working at the EPA.

A House committee this week released transcripts of an extensive deposition Beale gave lawmakers in December, in which he discussed tricking his co-workers, supervisors, and even his wife into believing his frequent absences were because he was a CIA spy.

Beale also said his deceptions came because he was working on a "project" to "modify the DNA of the capitalist system."

"There were some major misjudgment and lack of leadership skills when it came to decisions surrounding John Beale, but it is still difficult to ascertain the lies from reality at this stage, whether coming from EPA or Beale himself," Vitter said. "My instinct is that this is just the first layer of a very big onion in terms of what has been going on at EPA."

Vitter has accused EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who has been credited with triggering an investigation over Beale's expenses, of ignoring Beale's activities for too long.

Beale, in his deposition, says he met often with McCarthy when she was his boss at the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, and that his "fabricated story about working at CIA came up" and that they often discussed his plan to "modify the DNA of the capitalist system."

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