Story highlights Pruitt is attracting an unusually large number of threats to his safety, an EPA official said

No previous EPA chief has ever received a 24/7 security detail, the EPA Inspector General's Office said

(CNN) Scott Pruitt, the top federal official responsible for protecting the environment, is surrounded 24/7 by a cadre of agents because of the high number of threats against him.

The around-the-clock protection, described to CNN in recent months by federal officials, is an unprecedented level of security for the Environmental Protection Agency administrator. But the agency's inspector general's office said Pruitt, a controversial pick to lead the agency, is attracting an unusually large number of threats to his safety.

"We have at least four times -- four to five times the number of threats against Mr. Pruitt than we had against Ms. [Gina] McCarthy," said Patrick Sullivan, EPA's assistant inspector general for investigations, referring to Pruitt's predecessor during the Obama administration. He declined to provide the specific numbers of threats against 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,'" Sullivan told CNN in an interview. "Then there's implied threats -- like they say in New York, with the mafia: 'If you come after me and my family, I'll come after you and your family.'"

Sullivan's office is responsible for investigating the threats made against Pruitt.

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