A media watchdog group is suing to force President Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency to release records detailing his communications with energy companies ahead of a Senate vote to confirm his nomination.
The Center for Media and Democracy, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, planned to file a lawsuit Tuesday in an Oklahoma court against that state's attorney general, Scott Pruitt, who is Trump's nominee to become the top U.S. environmental regulator.
The group wants to force Pruitt to respond to more than four dozen open-records requests that have been filed as far back as January 2015 regarding emails between his office and energy companies.
The media watchdog filed seven of those requests seeking access to more than 3,000 emails. The lawsuit accuses Pruitt of violating the state's Open Records Act by failing to release those emails to the public.
"We are doing this because these emails should be released so that people can properly vet his record before the Senate votes to confirm him," said Nick Surgey, the center's director of research.
Pruitt, 48, sued the agency he intends to run 14 times on behalf of Oklahoma to try to weaken or end key regulations, earning him strong support from energy companies and Republican lawmakers who accused the Obama administration's EPA of regulatory overreach.
Panel's approval
On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Pruitt despite a boycott of his nomination by the panel's Democratic members. The full Senate, which is under Republican control, is expected to confirm him but has not set a date for the vote.
The watchdog group's lawsuit calls on the court to stop Pruitt from denying access to requested public records and to prevent his office from destroying any documents relevant to the requests.
Surgey said Pruitt was seemingly "unapologetic" during the confirmation hearings about his "strong relationships with Oklahoma's oil and gas companies" and that the public should be aware his ties to the types of companies he would need to regulate as EPA administrator.
Pruitt's office was not immediately available for comment. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a member of the Senate panel that held Pruitt's hearing, accused the nominee of stonewalling the request for information about his relationships with industry.
"I hope this lawsuit forces Attorney General Pruitt to stop the cover-up and disclose these emails immediately so the American people know what conflicts of interest this nominee has," Whitehouse said in a statement to Reuters.
