EPA Inspector General Finds No Justification for Former Administrator Pruitt’s $3.5 Million Security Spending

Washington, D.C. — The EPA Office of Inspector General released a report today that concluded that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s spending of $3.5 million — more than twice his predecessor — on a 24/7 security detail was unjustified.

The report is available online here.

“The Inspector General’s report today confirms what we already know: there was no serious evaluation of the so-called ‘threats’ to former Administrator Scott Pruitt’s personal safety, and no reason to justify providing him with round the clock security and first class travel,” said Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project and former Director of Civil Enforcement at EPA.

“Nothing more than paranoia and mismanagement explains why taxpayers shelled out more than $3.5 million last year – more than twice the amount spent in previous Administrations – on Mr. Pruitt’s personal bodyguard,” Schaeffer said.

The Environmental Integrity Project’s lawsuits, filed under the Freedom of Information Act last year, to force EPA to produce public records on Pruitt’s expensive travel and closed-door meetings with industry sparked two federal investigations, including by the EPA Office of Inspector General, that contributed to Pruitt’s resignation in July.