Holes continue to pop up in President Donald Trump’s assertion that he only surrounds himself with the best people. An official in the Environmental Protection Agency has resigned this week in the face of indictment on charges of bribery back in his home state of Alabama. Onis “Trey” Glenn III had served as Region 4 administrator in the EPA, supervising the southeastern United States, including eight states.
The charges he’s facing stem from work he completed before he joined up with the Trump administration last year. Alongside former member of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission Scott Phillips, he’d worked with the Drummond Company to oppose the addition of a Superfund site around Birmingham to the EPA’s list of the most polluted locales in the United States — a shift that would have no doubt brought down harsher EPA supervision of the site. Just this year, a former executive at the company and a lawyer who’d worked for them stood trial for bribery related charges — and now it’s Glenn’s and Phillips’ turn. They testified at the previous trial, explaining their work for the defendants.
Unsurprisingly, Glenn — who at the time of the activity in question, was a registered lobbyist — denies the legitimacy of the charges against him.
Addressing acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler in his resignation letter, he commented:
‘Stepping down now, I hope removes any distraction from you and all the great people who work at EPA as you carry out the Agency’s mission. I intend to focus on my family, fight these unfounded accusations and ultimately clear my name.’
Before joining up with the EPA, Glenn had led the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
His downfall isn’t the first to unfold in a similar fashion inside the Trump administration’s EPA. The president’s first choice for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, eventually fell under a huge weight of scandal including everything from a sweetheart deal for a residence to using the government apparatus to try and find his wife a job in the private sector — and even a soundproof phone booth that cost tens of thousands of dollars and he’s confirmed to have used all of one time.
Pruitt isn’t even the only Trump Cabinet official to have resigned in the face of similar issues. After racking up a million dollars in charges for first class flights around the country, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price left his position.
In other words, the trail of corruption that Glenn is part of inside the Trump administration goes on and on and on.
Resignations and firings continue too, with recent departures including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and National Security Council official Mira Ricardel.
Meanwhile, the president continues to insist, against all odds, that his administration is running smoothly and without a hitch.
Chatting with a Fox News reporter earlier this fall, he insisted, after having made similar claims (using similar language) previously:
‘We have a lot of love in the administration. The White House is truly, as you would say, a well-oiled machine. It is working so well.’
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