WRONG

No threats found vs. free-spending EPA big

WASHINGTON— Confidential security assessments in the Environmental Protection Agency show no evidence of specific, credible, physical threats against Administrator Scott Pruitt, despite claims that an “unprecedented” number of death threats justify his outsized security spending, according to a review by Senate Democrats.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wrote in a letter Tuesday that they have reviewed security assessments describing 16 purported threats against Pruitt. They include public protests, criticism of Pruitt’s policies and other activities protected by the First Amendment.

The letter from Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged the committee’s Republican chairman to begin oversight hearings into Pruitt’s unusual security precautions. The Associated Press reported Friday that EPA has spent about $3 million on Pruitt’s security measures, which included flying first-class and using a full-time security detail of 20 armed officers.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said last week there had been an “unprecedented” amount of death threats against Pruitt (photo) and his family.

Wilcox doubled down on that assertion Tuesday, but did not respond to a request to release details of the specific incidents to which he was referring.

President Trump defended Pruitt in a tweet Saturday night, downplaying the ethical questions swirling around his embattled EPA chief. He added that Pruitt’s security spending was “somewhat more” than prior EPA chiefs, but said Pruitt had received death threats “because of his bold actions at EPA.” The Democrats said they found no records describing specific, credible threats against Pruitt. An internal EPA document recounted such threats as attempts by protesters to disrupt a speech and a post card sent to Pruitt that said: “CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!!! We are watching you.” The Democrats also obtained a Feb. 14 assessment from EPA’s Office of Homeland Security Intelligence that concluded “EPA Intelligence has not identified any specific, credible, direct threat to the EPA administrator.”

The review said an earlier threat assessment by Pruitt’s security team “does not employ sound analysis or articulate relevant ‘threat specific’ information appropriate to draw any resource or level of threat conclusions regarding the protection posture for the administrator.”

Pruitt’s 20-member full-time detail is more than three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent.

In November, BuzzFeed News investigative reporter Jason Leopold filed a public records request with EPA for copies of government records about death threats to Pruitt. The reporter told AP this week that an EPA official who responded to his request told him verbally that after checks with the agency’s general counsel and inspector general’s office that no such records existed.