The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) paid an outside group to professionally examine agency chief Scott Pruitt’s office for covert surveillance devices, according to a Monday night report from The Hill.
The EPA paid $3,000 to Edwin Steinmetz Associates earlier this year to do a “sweep for covert/illegal surveillance devices” in Pruitt’s office weeks after he became administrator, the report notes. The sweep did not find any bugs.
Pruitt is the first EPA chief to use a 24-hour security detail. The Hill’s report, which is based on documents from an unnamed agency employee, comes after reports earlier this year showing the EPA spent $25,000 on a soundproof phone booth for the chief’s office, preventing outsiders from eavesdropping on communications.
EPA officials signed a $24,570 contract earlier this summer with sound canceling company Acoustical Solutions for a “privacy booth for the administrator.” The agency sought a customized version that Pruitt can use to communicate without fear of being monitored, a Washington Post report from September notes.
Agency officials argue the precautions are necessary, because of the serious threats Pruitt and his family face. EPA’s Office of Inspector General, for instance, launched more than 70 investigations into threats against Pruitt and others at the agency, an NBC report from October noted. None of the threats resulted in injuries, but they were deemed legitimate risks to officials.
One former EPA agent said the bug sweep was unusual, but perhaps necessary depending on the kind of threats Pruitt might be facing.
“It doesn’t strike me as completely out of left field, but it’s certainly not routine, even in the administrator’s office,” Doug Parker, a former agency official who retired in 2016, told reporters.
“There could be valid concerns,” Parker said, pointing to national security-related conversations that sometimes take place at EPA headquarters. “But it is certainly not something that was a routine occurrence in past administrator’s offices.”
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