Scott Pruitt requested and received 24/7 security starting on his first day at EPA
it was never a response to anything at all
the entire gop’r party is nothing but a pack of liars and cowards
Scott Pruitt began receiving round-the-clock security from the moment he stepped foot inside the Environmental Protection Agency in February 2017, the agency’s inspector general revealed Monday.
“EPA’s Protective Service Detail began providing 24/7 coverage of the Administrator the first day he arrived,” Inspector General Arthur Elkins wrote in response to inquiries from Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Thomas R. Carper (Del.) about what threats prompted Pruitt’s nonstop security, which has cost in excess of $3 million. “The decision was made by the Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training after being informed that Mr. Pruitt requested 24/7 protection once he was confirmed as Administrator.”
The inspector general’s office, which investigates threats made against any EPA employees, “played no role in this decision,” Elkins added.
The EPA could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday. But agency officials, including Pruitt, have said repeatedly that he has experienced notably more threats than previous administrators. And Pruitt has maintained that he left decisions about the size of his security detail, as well as related decisions such as traveling first class for safety, to Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, the special agent in charge of protecting him.
Perrotta, who has been under scrutiny for the expenditures related to Pruitt’s security and travel, retired from the agency late last month.
“A threat to a federal employee’s personal security is extremely serious, but so is using security as pretext for special treatment on the public dime,” Whitehouse and Carper said in a statement Monday. “This letter raises troubling questions about whether Administrator Pruitt told the truth during his testimony before the House. Now more than ever, Mr. Pruitt should come clean about his spending of taxpayer dollars on all manner of extravagances, and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle should demand he do so.”