Updated at 10:02 p.m.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt spent millions of taxpayer dollars on a 20-member security detail that is three times the size of his predecessor, according to a report Friday.
The agency spent millions of dollars on the full-time detail, which exceeded overtime budgets and prevented officers from looking into environmental crimes, the Associated Press reports.
An EPA official told the AP that EPA senior special agent Pasquale Perrotta oversaw a vast expansion of Pruitt’s security detail to guard him 24 hours a day. Pruitt was reportedly even under watch during family vacations and when he traveled home to Oklahoma.
The EPA official confirmed to the news association that there are major concerns regarding Pruitt’s safety due to backlash to his rollbacks of some environmental policies overseen by his predecessor under the Obama administration, Gina McCarthy.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement sent to the Washington Examiner that Pruitt has faced an “unprecedented” number of death threats.
“According to EPA’s Assistant Inspector General, Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and his family. Americans should all agree that members of the President’s cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats,” Wilcox said.
The AP reports that Pruitt’s excess travel caused many of his detail members to hit their annual salary caps of nearly $160,000.
The new allegations come following multiple reports that have called into question the former attorney general’s ethical standards and fitness for office.
