Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated federal ethics rules governing the use of taxpayer-funded resources when he and his wife approached State Department officials with a request to complete personal assignments. This was reported on April 16 by the Politico newspaper, citing a report from the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of State (OIG).
According to the publication, the conclusions were made after studying emails and documents, as well as on the basis of a survey of employees. As a result, more than 100 cases were identified when Pompeo and his wife asked State Department employees to perform personal tasks – for example, to book tables for private dinners, sign up for a beauty salon, pick up a dog, and organize excursions for political allies.
Pompeo himself stated that the requests were often small, and such things are usually done by friends.
Politico cited several requests from Pompeo’s wife Susan: she asked to send flowers, buy a T-shirt for a friend, sign her up to the hairdresser. Some of the assignments from a married couple were more energy intensive. For example, State Department employees had to plan events. They did not receive separate compensation for work that had nothing to do with the State Department.
The report often mentions the execution of assignments of a personal nature by one “senior advisor”. As suggested by the publication, we are talking about Tony Porter.
Earlier, a message from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Twitter fueled speculation about his nomination for the US presidency in the 2024 elections. Pompeo is one of the possible Republican candidates, but none of them has yet publicly announced their intentions. It is extremely important for potential candidates whether ex-President Donald Trump will run. In this case, many of them may hesitate to challenge him.
On September 2, 2020, it was reported that the wife of then US President Donald Trump, Melania, used her personal email address for business purposes.