UNITED STATES
The Hill
BY MIRANDA GREEN – 05/11/18
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is defending against allegations that Administrator Scott Pruitt dined privately with a cardinal accused of sexual assault during his visit to the Vatican last summer.
A spokesman for the agency denied that Pruitt met one-on-one with Cardinal George Pell during his trip to Italy and the Vatican in June, saying that Pruitt dined with a group of 12 to 15 individuals and had no prior knowledge of Pell attending. He added that Pruitt was not aware of the allegations against Pell.
“There was not a private one-on-one dinner with Cardinal Pell, as certain media outlets have portrayed. He was one of 12 to 15 individuals who attended the dinner and EPA had no knowledge that he was coming to the dinner,” EPA’s Jahan Wilcox said in a statement. “It is incorrect to report that any knowledge of the allegations against Cardinal Pell were raised to Administrator Pruitt’s level.”
New York Times reporter Eric Lipton on Thursday tweeted documents, first obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, that showed a working timeline before and during Pruitt’s trip. Those documents linked Pruitt to Pell and allege that EPA officials were aware of the allegations made against the Cardinal.
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