Scott Pruitt resigns as EPA Administrator

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned amid ethics investigations of outsized security spending, first-class flights and a sweetheart condo lease.

President Donald Trump is continuing to praise Pruitt, saying there was “no final straw” and he had not asked for Pruitt’s resignation. Trump says Pruitt is “a terrific guy.”

In his resignation letter, obtained by The Associated Press, Pruitt is expressing no regrets. He says the “unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.”

Pruitt’s tenure as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency ended with his resignation, but political experts in his home state of Oklahoma say he could continue his career in public office.

The path could lead him back to Washington.

Pruitt, 50, has widely been considered a potential candidate for either governor or U.S. Senate. Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Pam Pollard says voters there still support and trust him.

But the chairman of the political science department at the University of Oklahoma, Keith Gaddie, says Pruitt is too badly tarnished after a series of serious ethics scandals over 18 months.