ABC News first reported yesterday that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt has been living in an expensive townhouse owned by lobbyists. Bloomberg subsequently reported that Pruitt paid just $50 per night to crash there which is clearly not anything close to a market rate.
ABC News now reports that Pruitt's adult daughter also lived in the townhouse in which they both enjoyed full access to the kitchen and common area.
McKenna Pruitt, who served as a White House intern, stayed in the two-bedroom condo during her internship, according to two sources familiar with the living arrangements. She served as a clerk in the White House Counsel’s office between May and August of 2017, according to her Linked In page. One source added that the two had use of the rest of the condo unit, including the kitchen and living space on a lower level. The upstairs bedrooms had no other paid occupants, according to a third person familiar with the living arrangements. [...]
While Bloomberg reported Pruitt's lease did not allow him access to common areas in the unit, a source familiar with the arrangement told ABC News that Pruitt's daughter would often make her father breakfast, encouraging him to eat healthy and would slip avocado into his eggs. The source, who worked at EPA last year, said Pruitt would often joke about it when he came into the office.
Whoops?
An EPA spokesperson previously stated that Pruitt only paid for one room, but that apparently isn't true. It's not clear if Pruitt's $50 per night rate also covered his daughter's room, but it appears to have covered most of the house including the kitchen.
For perspective:
The condo is in a prime location -- less than a block from the U.S. Capitol complex – and other apartments in the duplex have rented for as much as $5,000-a-month, according to a source familiar with a neighboring lease.
ThinkProgress points out that Washington D.C. actually spends more (about $100 per night) to shelter the homeless than Pruitt was charged to live in this elite townhouse.