Pruitt sat courtside in seats owned by coal executive: report

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt attended a basketball game last December where he sat courtside in seats owned by a billionaire coal executive with business before Pruitt’s agency.

The New York Times reports that Pruitt attended a University of Kentucky basketball game in December with his son, where the two sat in second-row seats that were obtained by coal executive Joseph W. Craft III, a major donor to the school. The tickets were exclusive to season-pass holders who donated $1 million to the university, according to the Times.

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Craft at the time was seeking the EPA’s rollback of regulations on the coal industry put in place by the Obama administration. The billionaire executive and his wife were major donors to the Trump campaign and administration, donating more than $2 million.

In a statement to the Times, a spokesman for Craft’s company Alliance Resource Partners stated that Pruitt purchased the use of the seats from Craft for “market value,” and said the company did not receive special treatment from Pruitt’s agency.

“We did not receive any special treatment from the E.P.A.,” Heath Lovell told the Times.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox confirmed the purchase, saying it was valued at $130 per seat, paid in cash. Wilcox did not explain why Pruitt paid cash for the seats.

“Administrator Pruitt and Joe Craft are longtime friends; he paid cash for the UK tickets which were approved by career EPA ethics officials beforehand,” Wilcox told The Hill in a statement.

The basketball game is just the latest in a series of reports detailing Pruitt’s close ties to lobbyists and executives with business before the EPA. In March, it was revealed that Pruitt lived for months in a condo co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist, which Pruitt rented for just $50 per night.

The embattled EPA administrator is also facing investigations into other scandals, including reports that he went around the White House to approve raises for top aides without permission and spent tens of thousands of dollars on bulletproof office furniture. 

This article was updated at 2:30 p.m.