Cough it up taxpayers, I’m dead broke!
Daily Mail: Hillary Clinton left her post at the top of the U.S. State Department on Feb. 1, 2013, but the federal government us taxpayers spent more than $55,000 on travel expenses related to her book tour just last month, procurement documents show.
The expenses included a $3,668 charge for her to enjoy a single night’s lodging in a suite at the posh Four Seasons George V hotel in Paris. That rate corresponds to the cost of a suite with a “large and superbly appointed marble bathroom,” a “deep soaking tub,” “sparkling chandeliers”, and elegant period furniture.”
Purchase orders also show that taxpayers footed the bill for a $5,100 rental of three Mercedes-Benz executive limousine vans during a single day in Berlin. MailOnline could not locate records of hotel costs in the German capital.
Rental cars for Secret Service agents in Paris totaled a whopping $11,291. The government taxpayers spent another $35,813 on lodging there, but the purchase order doesn’t say where Clinton’s personal protection detail stayed.
The one-time first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was conducting interviews in Europe related to her book “Hard Choices,” and was not traveling on official government business.
In Paris, she was photographed repeatedly with French President Francois Hollande – and the 635-page tome.
Tim Miller, executive director of the America Rising PAC, told MailOnline that the expense seems odd considering the size of Mrs. Clinton’s well-publicized speaking fees, which often top $200,000 per appearance.
“Hillary’s book tour through Europe was a fiscal double whammy – lining her pockets with outrageous speaking fees and billing the taxpayers for thousands in travel,” Miller said on Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security paid for the van rentals in Berlin, billing the cost to its Office of Inspector General (OIG) – which normally has control over investigators, not bodyguards. “I don’t understand that,” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told MailOnline.
He said that sometimes the State Department arranges for foreign travel for dignitaries who get Secret Service protection. “We would have requested the cars in Berlin and Paris, he added, “because we ant to have control of that care she rides in. But I don’t understand that OIG thing at all,” he said.
First ladies have historically enjoyed Secret Service protection for life after they leave the White House. The same can’t be said, however, for former cabinet secretaries, making it curious that the State Department’s Paris Embassy was on the hook for the other costs.
“On a foreign trip like that, State Department sometimes pays the original bill and Secret Service might reimburse it later,” said Donovan. He added, however, that he couldn’t say whether that would happen in this case.
A press officer at State said she would hunt for information, including answers to the thorny question of whether her agency had paid for Clinton’s private travel on other non-government time.