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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently placed nearly 140 employees on administrative leave amid an investigation into employees who signed on to a letter allegedly using their official titles and EPA positions.
Written as agency employees, the letter contained information that misled the public about agency business, according to officials.
The EPA confirmed it placed 139 employees on administrative leave pending an investigation.
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“The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” an EPA spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
The employees in question issued their statement under the auspices of the group Stand Up for Science.
Stand Up for Science confirmed to Fox News Digital via email that it has “heard this [of the situation] from signatories of the EPA Declaration of Dissent, that Stand Up for Science is hosting for these employees.”
The nonprofit’s founder and executive director, Colette Delawalla, wrote in a statement that all she knows is what EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said to the press.
“This was not just a public letter—it was emailed to him by employees at the EPA on Monday morning, and published after it was sent to him,” Delawalla wrote. “He has not formally responded to his employees, and they have been placed on administrative leave. Though we are still gathering information on this situation, we condemn these actions. These are dedicated civil servants whose career goal is to keep Americans safe.”
The letter came after President Donald Trump’s administration in April fired or reassigned nearly 500 EPA employees.
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Zeldin confirmed 280 staffers in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and EPA regional offices, were fired. He added that 175 others were reassigned.
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The EPA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental Justice arms were also eliminated, as Zeldin cut back more than 30 Biden-era regulations.
Though more than a hundred employees were allegedly put on leave, there are thousands of employees at the agency.
The EPA did not provide Fox News Digital with any additional information about the situation.
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