Former Trump EPA staffers were paid $38K after they were terminated: report

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Two former employees of the Trump administration reportedly continued to receive payment from the federal government at the direction of high-ranking EPA officials even after they were fired or had resigned from their posts.

Improper payments worth roughly $38,000 were directed by former EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson and executed by former EPA White House liaison Charles Munoz, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General obtained by Politico.

The two employees remained anonymous in the report, but Munoz said that he was directed by Jackson in one instance to continue making payments after one of the employees was fired from the EPA in 2017.

“Mr. Munoz explained that the ‘fix,’ which he believed was Mr. Jackson’s idea, was to tell the EPA’s Human Resources Management Division that [the person] was on an extended telework schedule so that [they] would receive pay” after their termination, the report said, according to Politico. “Mr. Munoz explained that he believed Mr. Jackson would not be happy if he had not followed Mr. Jackson’s order to get additional pay for [the person] after [their] termination.”

This individual reportedly received $14,181.38 after termination.

A second employee was allegedly forced to resign in 2018 for undisclosed reasons, but Jackson continued to pay the individual – a total of $23,731.85 –to avoid an employment break as the person searched for other federal opportunities, the publication said.

Munoz was also said to have received an improper raise.

As noted by Politico, no charges were pressed over the report’s findings.

As previously reported by Fox News, it had been revealed that Jackson had approved controversial raises, which former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said at the time he was unaware of.

Pruitt, who resigned in 2018, was the subject of multiple probes during his tenure.

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