Pruitt’s security detail has cost taxpayers nearly $3M: report

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s security detail has cost taxpayers nearly $3 million, according to a new report.

An EPA official told The Washington Post that Pruitt’s detail is far larger than those of previous administrators. Pruitt’s detail is now made up of at least 18 full-time agents, according to the newspaper.

The men and women who guard Pruitt reportedly work overtime regularly and accompanied Pruitt when he went to Oklahoma for Christmas and when he went to a University of Kentucky basketball game.

EPA officials have defended the security, saying Pruitt has received numerous threats.

“Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and his family,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement. {mosads}

“Americans should all agree that members of the President’s cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats.”

Pruitt has been in the spotlight over his frequent first-class travel and full-time security detail.

He was criticized last year after it was reported that the EPA installed a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office, despite there being a similar facility elsewhere in the agency headquarters.

Most recently, Pruitt has come under fire after it was reported that he rented a condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 a night, and only on the nights he stayed there.

Some GOP lawmakers have since called for Pruitt to resign.

But President Trump has defended Pruitt, saying he is doing a “great job.”