EPA chief Scott Pruitt appealed to President Donald Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions — and let Pruitt run the Department of Justice instead, CNN reported Tuesday.
The appeal came this spring during an Oval Office conversation with the president in which Pruitt offered to temporarily replace Sessions, and then return to Oklahoma to run for office, CNN reported, citing three unnamed sources.
According to CNN, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator suggested using the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 to justify the replacement; the law gives the president authority to temporarily fill a vacancy at a federal agency if the official "dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office."
Pruitt fired back in a statement to CNN, saying, "This report is simply false. General Sessions and I are friends and I have always said I want nothing more than to see him succeed in his role."
The White House didn’t comment to CNN. The EPA told the outlet it wouldn’t comment “on anonymous sources who are working to distract Americans from the Trump administration's accomplishments on regulatory certainty and environmental stewardship."
The report is the latest black eye for the embattled official.
Before taking over the EPA, Pruitt was the attorney general of Oklahoma, and served two terms as chairman of RAGA, the Republican network for state attorneys general, CNN noted.
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