Pruitt’s trip-to-Italy tab tops $120,000

WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt spent more than $120,000 in public funds last summer for a trip to Italy that included a meeting of G-7 ministers and a private tour of the Vatican.

The known cost of Pruitt’s previously reported trip grew this week after the agency disclosed a heavily censored document showing expenses for Pruitt’s security detail cost more than $30,500. That’s on top of nearly $90,000 spent for food, hotels, commercial airfare and a military jet used by Pruitt and nine EPA staff members.

Pruitt has defended his frequent travel, the full cost of which hasn’t been publicly revealed. That includes flying first class, which he described as a security precaution.

The latest records were released after a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group.

Pruitt is the first EPA administrator to require a full-time security detail that guards him day and night, the total cost of which has not been disclosed.