Scott Pruitt's staff is trying to get him off hotseat by shopping negative stories about a cabinet rival: report

Embattled EPA boss Scott Pruitt is widely disliked and mocked, thanks to a steady drip of reports about his antics and obscene spending. He's repeatedly been called "unfit to serve."

Pruitt's staff's strategy for getting their boss out of the spotlight? Get another guy in trouble.

And so, as The Atlantic reports, Pruitt's press secretary has been shopping negative information about Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a very odd man and a fake geologist.

"The stories were shopped with the intention of 'taking the heat off of Pruitt,'" the sources said to Atlantic.

According to the report, the EPA figured out which staffer was shopping the negative stories and has tried to figure out whether he can be fired. That staffer is classified as “administratively determined," which means that only Pruitt himself has the ability to fire him.

"It is unclear the extent to which Pruitt was aware of these events," the Atlantic reports.