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Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's government flights cost taxpayers over $800K but broke no laws: Review
LBN thread: Treasury inspector general finds no wrongdoing in Mnuchin plane travel
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Source: ABC News
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's government flights cost taxpayers over $800K but broke no laws: Review
By JUSTIN FISHEL and JORDYN PHELPS • Oct 5, 2017, 6:47 PM ET
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took seven trips on government jets during his short tenure at the department that have cost taxpayers over $800,000, but at no time did he violate any laws, a preliminary internal review concluded on Thursday.
A new memo to the Treasury Department's Inspector General from his legal counsel Rich Delmar determined that while these expensive trips don't break the law, they also don't meet the standards for justification set out in guidelines this administration has said it would follow. Those guidelines were laid out in a memo by President Obama's chief of staff, Bill Daley.
"I see no violation of law in these requests and uses," Delmar, writes in the report. "What is of concern is a disconnect between the standard of proof called for in the Daley memo, and the actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests."
Officials who worked with Mnuchin's predecessors told ABC News military aircraft were only used in "extreme" circumstances, and for some overseas business travel. Mnuchin's most expensive flights outlined in the report were on two overseas trips, each of which cost over $300,000.
But it also shows that he requested a flight between New York and Washington, D.C., on Aug. 15 that cost over $15,000.
-snip-
By JUSTIN FISHEL and JORDYN PHELPS • Oct 5, 2017, 6:47 PM ET
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took seven trips on government jets during his short tenure at the department that have cost taxpayers over $800,000, but at no time did he violate any laws, a preliminary internal review concluded on Thursday.
A new memo to the Treasury Department's Inspector General from his legal counsel Rich Delmar determined that while these expensive trips don't break the law, they also don't meet the standards for justification set out in guidelines this administration has said it would follow. Those guidelines were laid out in a memo by President Obama's chief of staff, Bill Daley.
"I see no violation of law in these requests and uses," Delmar, writes in the report. "What is of concern is a disconnect between the standard of proof called for in the Daley memo, and the actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests."
Officials who worked with Mnuchin's predecessors told ABC News military aircraft were only used in "extreme" circumstances, and for some overseas business travel. Mnuchin's most expensive flights outlined in the report were on two overseas trips, each of which cost over $300,000.
But it also shows that he requested a flight between New York and Washington, D.C., on Aug. 15 that cost over $15,000.
-snip-
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/treasury-secretary-mnuchins-government-flights-cost-taxpayers-800k/story?id=50312972
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
is now overflowing! 
