The head of the EPA Pruitt faced with a new claims investigation, he retaliated against staff members who questioned his expenses

The Office of the US Special Advisor is investigating whether the Environmental Protection Agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt, retaliated against staff members who questioned his spending and management decisions, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

During Pruitt's tenure, the EPA reallocated or took administrative action against several career officials and a policy appointee who objected to the way he spent public funds or used the benefits of his office, said these individuals.

According to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt 's, lawyers from the Office of the Special Advisor, who respond to complaints from whistleblowers federal employees and may choose to sue, are talking to half a dozen people. current and former employees. former deputy chief of staff. The office is taking the case "extremely seriously," Chmielewski said in an interview Monday.

Politico first reported that the investigation was ongoing. Pruitt faces more than a dozen federal investigations into his expenses and management decisions, including the review of his first class travels, the installation of a $ 43,000 soundproof telephone booth in his office and $ 50 rent per night.

Chmielewski, a man named Trump who has publicly stated that he was fired in February after questioning Pruitt's decision to fly first class and spend money on a range of security issues. , said that he had spent at least six hours at the Law Office on Thursday. The office has assigned three lawyers to review the claims he and other EPA officials have made, Chmielewski added.

In April, Pruitt denied any retaliation during a hearing at Capitol Hill, during which Representative Betty McCollum, D-Minn., Alleged that "the staff was attacked during your tenure" and that " documented reprisals I am concerned. "

Pruitt attributed to his aides many of the agency's most controversial spending decisions and stated that the decision to travel in first class and receive 24-hour protection stemmed from the threats that he received as an administrator. He replied to McCollum: "I would say unequivocally that I do not know of any cases – I am not aware of any cases where lawsuits have been filed against anyone for advice or advice given in expenditure.

Neither the Office of the Special Advisor nor the EPA would comment on it on Monday. OSC spokesman Zachary Kurz said in an email that the bureau "can not comment or confirm any open investigation", and EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a separate email that "the EPA does not comment."

Other agency officials who have been either reassigned or forced to leave the agency include former deputy chiefs John Reeder and Reginald Allen; security agents John Martin and Eric Weese; and Mario Caraballo, deputy administrator of the EPA's Homeland Security Office. Reeder is married to Carol Leonnig, a Washington Post reporter.

Caraballo, who submitted a report questioning the reasons for the 24/7 security of the administrator, was put on administrative leave earlier this year and has since retired.

Chmielewski said that while Pruitt's main assistants "thought they were going to push me to resign" and compiled the paperwork for that purpose, he was fired.

"On February 12, I was physically escorted from the building," he said. "They took me all, it was the definition of being fired."