Environmental Protection Agency Principal Deputy General Counsel Melissa Hoffer may have violated federal law by asking the Department of Justice to put a hold on all litigation involving EPA, according to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). In a Jan. 25 letter made public Thursday, Blackburn asked EPA Inspector-General (IG) Sean O’Donnell and Comptroller General Gene Dodaro to “open an investigation into potential violations of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA) and other potential violations of ethics rules.” Dodaro heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress. Hoffer is a political appointee as one of the first 16 officials dispatched to EPA by the White House Jan. 20 to carry out President Joe Biden’s plan to make combatting global warming, or climate change, one of his administration’s top economic and national security policy priorities. “On her first day on the job, Ms. Hoffer swiftly sent a memorandum …