Man hired to sweep Scott Pruitt's office for bugs is in business with a top EPA security official

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Energy and Environment

Man hired to sweep Scott Pruitt’s office for bugs is in business with a top EPA security official

By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis March 6 at 10:45 AM

[e-mail]; [e-mail]

This article has been updated.

Two senior Senate Democrats asked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday to provide details about how a business associate of the head of his security detail got a security contract with the agency.

Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta — who heads Pruitt’s security detail and also serves as a principal of Rockville-based Sequoia Security Group — suggested last year to EPA officials that they hire a fellow member of the management team at Sequoia, Edwin Steinmetz, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency decisions. The roughly $3,000 contract to sweep Pruitt’s office for concealed listening devices was conducted by Edwin Steinmetz Associates, the official said.

The Associated Press reported last year that the EPA had hired Steinmetz to conduct the bug sweep, though it did not report that Perrotta had suggested agency officials seek Steinmetz’s services or that they are in business together. Pruitt also had biometric locks installed in his office, for two separate payments of $3,390 and $2,495, according to the AP. Those expenditures weren’t disclosed on the government’s contracting website because the threshold for reporting stands at $3,500.

Steinmetz is listed as Sequoia’s vice president of technical surveillance measures. And while it was his own firm, based in New Jersey, that received the bug-sweeping contract, Sens. Thomas R. Carper (Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) — both senior Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — are seeking documentation to prove that Perrotta obeyed federal conflict-of-interest rules.
....

Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books — one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other — and has worked for The Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin

Brady Dennis is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on the environment and public health issues. Follow @brady_dennis

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/06/man-hired-to-sweep-scott-pruitts-office-for-bugs-is-in-business-with-a-top-epa-security-official/

---

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

NEW: Man hired to sweep Scott Pruitt’s office for bugs is in business with a top EPA security official. w/@eilperin

Link to tweet

[ck4829]

1. What was the old Dubya-bootlicker saying again?

"If you've got nothing to hide, then you've got nothing to fear."

[salin]

2. wtf is he doing that he needs semiregular bug sweeping?

almost makes you wonder if industry had been bugging the previous EPA administrators - and being a favored insider, Pruitt was aware and is now taking precautions. Yes that's speculative - but this guys paranoia is something else - and really troubling. What awful policies and actions are happening in his office that need to be made so opaque. WTF is he doing to our country?

[riversedge]

3. Pruitt is paranoid as heck. But, my question-Why is puting out tax money for this? Why doesn't our

own FBI --or what ever agency of the Fed gov just do it???

[RestoreAmerica2020]

4. IF he is doing the work of the American people, adheres to ethical standards,

...and rule of law ...then why the paranoia? Rhetorical of course!