ABC News: Watchdog groups press embattled EPA chief Pruitt for transparency on legal defense fund

Lawmakers and watchdog groups pressed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt Thursday to share details about his legal defense fund. …

Government watchdog groups, including Public Citizen, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Every Voice and the Sunlight Foundation, released a letter Thursday urging the administrator to comply with the request. …

“There remains no record of the operations and fundraising of your legal defense fund,” the letter said. “If a legal defense fund is not carefully set up and administered, there are many ways the Fund may run afoul of executive branch ethics rules. Given the large number of ethics scandals now under investigation at the EPA, further scandals should be avoided by you and the agency.” …

In the letter, the watchdog groups said that the Office of the Government Ethics legal defense funds has offered little guidance on how executive branch personnel should operate, allowed very little transparency on how the funds are being managed and whether such funds are complying with the ethics rules.