Mink later posted the video on Facebook and Twitter explaining that Pruitt had been sitting three tables away from her as she ate lunch with her family.
Video of the incident was posted on Facebook, showing the woman, who identifies herself on her Facebook profile as Kristin Mink, criticizing Pruitt for decisions he has made at the EPA, and accusing him of failing to protect the environment.
Dravis said she declined his request, saying she was anxious the call would violate the Hatch Act and that she wanted to avoid potential conflicts of interest. "This is my son, who loves animals, who loves food and air, who loves clean water", Mink tells Pruitt, berating him for rolling back environmental protection policies and becoming embroiled in multiple ethical scandals. The encountered happened Monday at Teaism restaurant in D.C.'s Penn Quarter. "Meanwhile, you're slashing strong fuel standards for cars and trucks, for the benefit of big corporations".
Although Mink was respectful during the encounter, public confrontations similar to this have sparked a debate over where the boundaries lie when dealing civilly with public officials.
"So, I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out", Mink concluded. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was chased out of a Mexican restaurant and accosted by protesters at her Virginia home.
Last month, the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia asked Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave, because staff felt they could not serve her in good conscience after she defended the president's attempt to ban transgender people from the U.S. military.
The new accounts by Pruitt's handpicked staff come as EPA's chief ethics officer, Kevin Minoli, has urged the agency's Office of Inspector General to broaden its review of Pruitt's conduct. Dravis declined, according to her testimony last week before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but added that Pruitt insisted that whichever job found for his wife top $200,000 in salary.
Some of the hidden meetings reportedly ranged from coal industry CEO Joseph Craft and other industry executives, to Kellyanne Conway, to Cardinal George Pell, a Vatican official and climate change skeptic who weeks later was hit with sex crimes charges.
EPA spokesman Lincoln Ferguson, however, says Pruitt "always welcomes input from Americans".