The millions of dollars spent on a round-the-clock security detail for the scandal-laden former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency were not justified, according to the findings of an internal watchdog.
Scott Pruitt’s transition team asked for a 24/7 security team for him when he was appointed as head of the EPA by Donald Trump, even pulling agents from criminal investigations to guard him, in a move that dramatically escalated the cost for the taxpayer and broke with the protocol followed by his predecessors.
“The failure by the EPA to properly justify the level of protective services provided to the administrator has allowed costs to increase from $1.6m to $3.5m in just 11 months,” said Jeffrey Lagda, a spokesman for EPA’s inspector general.
Pruitt came under fire for spending $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth and for asking his security agents and aides to run errands and do other personal tasks for him.
Following numerous scandals, the White House asked Pruitt to resign in July.
Lagda said the report found the agency has no approved procedures to determine how much security the administrator needs.
Pruitt’s protective service detail also did not conduct a threat analysis before assigning guards to stay with him at all hours and instead relied on an inspector general report to support ramping up his security. That report included more than a dozen alleged threats, including on social media and in postcards. In one complaint, the inspector general investigated someone drawing a moustache on a photo of Pruitt on the cover of a magazine and posting it in an EPA elevator.
Pruitt’s team also used the reported incidents to support his case for flying first class to avoid encounters with other passengers.
Austin Evers, executive director of the transparency group American Oversight that has been suing EPA for public records, said “the headline of the report is that EPA lacked policies and procedures to properly control security spending by the administrator, but what that says to me is the EPA was totally unprepared for an administrator like Scott Pruitt, who turned public service into a private benefit at every turn”.
Andrew Wheeler, who was named acting head of the EPA after Pruitt resigned, has pledged to improve transparency and adhere to ethical norms. “But he’s still the EPA administrator for this president who is enthusiastic about rolling back environmental protections for Americans,” Evers said.
The EPA’s inspector general expects to issue more reports later this year on Pruitt’s travel expenses and use of an environmental law to hire and provide raises to political aides.
“Persons intending to harm often do not make threats,” a spokesperson for the EPA said in an emailed statement. Citing last year’s attack by a gunman on a congressional baseball practice and the previous shooting of former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the spokesperson said the inspector general was wrong to argue that Pruitt’s security detail wasn’t justified and was unable to back up that conclusion in its report.
