SWAMP THING:

Mr. Pruitt, who often ran late, wanted to use the lights and sirens to expedite local trips in Washington to the airport or to dinner, including at least one trip to Le Diplomate, a trendy French restaurant that he frequented. Such use was not consistent with agency policy, but Mr. Weese was unsuccessful in stopping it.

The agency said Mr. Pruitt played no role in deciding when the sirens and lights would be used. "The security detail for the past 15 years has used them in very limited fashion," Mr. Wilcox said.

Mr. Weese was also reluctant to sign off on requests for Mr. Pruitt to travel in first class based on security concerns. Mr. Allen, Mr. Chmielewski and Mr. Reeder, too, questioned the use of taxpayer money to pay for first-class airfare. Only after Mr. Weese was replaced by Mr. Perrotta did Mr. Pruitt regularly fly first class, agency staff members said.

There were also questions raised about a request that Mr. Pruitt be issued a bulletproof sport utility vehicle with so-called run flat tires, which keep a vehicle moving even when sustaining gunfire. And they challenged Mr. Pruitt's expanded security detail of approximately 20 members, three times the size of his predecessor's. Unlike his most recent counterpart under Mr. Obama, Gina McCarthy, Mr. Pruitt has security officials follow him wherever he travels, and also stay on duty overnight.

"He wanted to be treated like he was the president," said David Schnare, a prominent conservative lawyer and climate change skeptic, who served on the Trump administration transition team at the E.P.A., after an earlier 30-year stint at the agency that started in the late 1970s.

Mr. Wilcox, the agency spokesman, said the larger security team was justified, given threats against Mr. Pruitt. "They run the variety of direct death threats -- 'I'm going to put a bullet in your brain' -- to implied threats -- 'If you don't classify this particular chemical in this particular way, I'm going to hurt you.'"

There was a particularly intense dispute over a request to construct a special security booth in Mr. Pruitt's office so he could have confidential conversations without being overheard by career agency employees, according to interviews and public documents first reported by The Washington Post. [...]

The various challenges to Mr. Pruitt's spending and security priorities did not sit well with him, according to the people who worked with or for the E.P.A., and soon the offending aides were removed.

Mr. Allen, a decorated 30-year retired Army officer, was transferred to a different office within the E.P.A., where he mostly works alone, according to two agency officials, one of whom described the setup as "an unmarked grave." [...]

William K. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. under President George Bush, called Mr. Pruitt a "third-rate ideologue" and said he was aware of staff members who had been sidelined at the agency for raising questions about Mr. Pruitt's spending.

"I think he's well beyond his sell-by date," Mr. Reilly said. "Any administration but this one would have discharged him long ago."

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