If it wasn't so serious, this stuff would be laughable.
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is up to his neck in ethics investigations and has been criticized even by some Republicans (though they don't seem too upset) over his, shall we say, profligate ways.
Now the Intercept reports, based on records released under the Freedom of Information Act, that Pruitt has spent more than $4.6 million in federal tax dollars on his own security _ including more than $2,700 on "tactical pants" and "tactical polos."
Presumably that refers to special clothing for his security team, but it sounds more like he's hiring pairs of pants to consult on tactics _ perhaps in meetings conducted in his soundproof telephone booth to discuss how to go about buying a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel (yes, Pruitt tried to do that).
But Pruitt's spending on security is no laughing matter. The new total is up $1.1 million from a report released just a month ago, according to the Intercept, and far ahead of what past EPA directors have spent.
The EPA has argued that the security is necessary because of death threats to Pruitt, yet the 24/7 security was approved by the White House before Pruitt even began the job. And subsequent reporting revealed that the number of legitimate death threats is zero.
Yet he spends. And spends.
How swampy.
