April 10, 2018
By Lisa Friedman –
An assessment of threats aimed at Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, conducted by the agency’s Homeland Security office in February, undercuts claims made by Mr. Pruitt’s security team to justify millions of dollars in security expenditures, according to an internal document obtained by a Senate Democrat.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote in a letter on Tuesdayto John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, that the E.P.A.’s Homeland Security Intelligence Team reviewed an October memo and found no specific credible threats to the administrator. The October memo was created by Mr. Pruitt’s protective security detail, led by Pasquale Perrotta, who is known as Nino, and was used to justify much of Mr. Pruitt’s large security detail and first-class travel.
The same February assessment described repeated efforts by E.P.A. intelligence officials to tell the agency’s inspector general and senior leadership “that ‘the threat’ to the Administrator was being inappropriately mischaracterized” by Mr. Pruitt’s security detail, Mr. Whitehouse wrote in the letter, sent jointly with Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat of Delaware.
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is “to protect human health and the environment.” Disgraced EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tried his best to undermine this vital mission by choosing to slash critical health protections and let corporate polluters off the hook. Now that Pruitt’s been booted, we need an EPA administrator dedicated to undoing his toxic agenda and restoring the agency to its core mission. Progress is possible and necessary – but another corporate crony or climate skeptic will not get us there.
Scott Pruitt is gone, but the fight is just beginning. We need an EPA administrator who puts our health and environment first, period. Any alternative is unacceptable.
