EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's profligate spending of taxpayer money isn't new — he reportedly jacked up spending when he was Oklahoma attorney general, too — but EPA officials have justified most of it by citing apparently very overblown concerns about Pruitt's safety. And Pruitt's main enabler, Politico says, is the head of his 19-person 24/7 security detail, Pasquale "Nino" Perrotta.
Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent, encouraged or insisted that Pruitt (and himself) fly first class, upgrade to a specialized SUV, sweep his office for bugs — with a company linked to Perrotta — and install a $43,000 soundproof booth, Politico says, and recently retired EPA multimedia director Ron Slotkin said Perrotta posted a guard to keep employees out of Pruitt's EPA suite of offices. "Mr. Pruitt thinks he's the president of the United States," one former career staffer told Politico. "He's big on image."
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