The Environmental Protection Agency spent $120,000 of taxpayer money on a no-bid contract with a Republican public relations firm to track and shape press coverage of the agency, Mother Jones reported.
The EPA confirmed the contract with the Virginia-based Definers Public Affairs, telling Mother Jones that it's for "media monitoring/newsclip compilation."
But the firm, started by Matt Rhoades, former 2012 Mitt Romney campaign manager, bills itself as an aggressive opposition research shop offering "war room" style media monitoring to help clients "validate your narrative."
Political clients of Definers in the past include Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and John McCain and Rep. Diane Black.
A senior vice president is billed "among the leaders of the war on [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren."
EPA Director Scott Pruitt can use the PR lift.
The former Oklahoma attorney general has come under frequent criticism on several fronts, mostly for questionable and controversial climate policies and overturning measures of the previous administration that aimed to protect the environment.
But Pruitt also has been dinged for transparency of the agency, travel habits and questionable expenditures, such as a sound-proofing room for his office and round-the-clock security detail.
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