EPA Pulls Agents Off Probes For Pruitt’s 24/7, 18-Member Security Detail

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
FILE - In this June 2, 2017, file photo, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Newly obtained emails underscor... FILE - In this June 2, 2017, file photo, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Newly obtained emails underscore just how closely Pruitt coordinated with fossil fuel companies while serving as Oklahoma’s state attorney general, a position in which he frequently sued to block federal efforts to curb planet-warming carbon emissions. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) MORE LESS
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Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has an unprecedented round-the-clock security detail that now includes 18 people, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed people briefed on the situation.

Pruitt’s request for such a large security detail has required the EPA to pull special agents who typically investigate environmental crimes onto his detail, according to the Washington Post and CNN.

The EPA administrator reportedly requested a 24/7 security detail of 10 agents when he first assumed his post earlier this year. These latest stories confirm that Pruitt has had a round-the-clock security detail, a first for an EPA administrator.

The agency’s inspector general told the Washington Post and CNN that the EPA has seen an uptick in threats this year, many of them directed at Pruitt himself.

“We have at least four times — four to five times the number of threats against Mr. Pruitt than we had against Ms. [Gina] McCarthy,” Patrick Sullivan, the EPA’s assistant inspector general for investigations, told CNN.

“They run the variety of direct death threats — ‘I’m going to put a bullet in your brain’ — to implied threats — ‘if you don’t classify this particular chemical in this particular way, I’m going to hurt you,'” Sullivan added. “Then there’s implied threats — like they say in New York, with the mafia: ‘If you come after me and my family, I’ll come after you and your family.'”

According to documents obtained by E&E News through a Freedom of Information Act request in July, the EPA spent nearly double the amount previous administrations spent on security in its first three months under Pruitt.

Pruitt’s request for a large security detail comes as he pushes for a 31 percent funding cut across the agency.

 

Notable Replies

  1. Not that we need yet another example, but this captures what kind of person says “yes” to working for the Trumpp admin.

  2. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    Well…if they’re protecting Pruitt, they can’t be investigating environmental crimes. That’s just a bonus for Pruitt and his corporate enablers.

  3. Twofer.

  4. I was gonna post something, but between you and @pshah, you’ve said everything I was gonna say…

    ETA: see what I did there? Got a post out of thin air, haha.

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