Scott Pruitt resigned from his position as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but that doesn't mean the investigation(s) of his conduct are going away.
At the time of his resignation, there were more than a dozen ongoing investigations of Pruitt's actions and the agency's inspector general told CNN that those investigations will continue.
All told, Pruitt left EPA having faced more than a dozen inquiries or reviews into his practices at the agency, including his first-class plane travel, a room that he rented from a lobbyist at $50 per night and the installation of a soundproof booth in his office.
A spokesman for the EPA's Office of Inspector General told CNN that ongoing or pending reviews of Pruitt will continue, even though he has resigned.
"Any ongoing or pending OIG reviews related to the Administrator and/or his team will continue—regardless of the Administrator's resignation," the spokesman said.
It already seems evident that Pruitt may have committed several crimes including hiding his full schedule from the federal government, which is a felony, but if an investigation proves that to be true the next question is who's going to act on it? Will a federal prosecutor take him to court? That seems unlikely to me.
Pruitt may never be held legally culpable, but he could still pay a price. And that brings us to Pruitt's resignation and the final straw that led to it.
When Pruitt resigned, Trump claimed there was no final straw and that Pruitt resigned on his own accord, but Bloomberg reported over the weekend that Pruitt was fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
No one appears to have made the connection yet, but I believe Pruitt was fired (resigned?) because of last week's report that Pruitt asked Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and temporarily replace him with Pruitt.
Why temporarily? Why not permanently?
According to those same reports, Pruitt wished to serve as attorney general for a short period of time before leaving the Trump regime to run for governor of Oklahoma.
If Pruitt is ever going to pay a price, it could be the ruin of his future political career.