By Dan Mangan, CNBC •
Updated on February 11, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Petr David Josek | Reuters
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $10,000 of taxpayer money on China-made pens for attendees at private dinner parties.
The parties were attended by a variety of CEOs, elected officials, GOP donors and diplomats. The pens were made in China.
The dinners had raised concerns among some State Department officials, who worried that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo’s political ambitions, NBC News reported.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $10,000 of taxpayer money on China-made pens for attendees at private dinner parties he hosted, including CEOs, conservative media figures and Republican donors, according to State Department records.
Pompeo s taxpayer-funded gifts to dinner guests: $10,000 in engraved pens from China yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The former secretary of state used taxpayer funds to buy 400 specially embossed pens worth more than $10,000 in total for dinner guests at the State Department, documents show.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $10,000 in taxpayer funds on engraved Madison Dinner-branded pens that he gifted to attendees of the notorious dinner parties, according to records obtained by CREW in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The guests included high-profile Republican donors, who could be politically useful if Pompeo runs for office in the future. This new disclosure brings the total amount of taxpayer funds spent on the dinners to at least $50,000, several thousand more than previously reported.
The new records reveal that the pens, which were custom-embossed with Madison Dinner logos, cost the Department at least $10,433 for a total of 400 pens.
The pens were embossed with the emblem of the Madison Dinners, a series of events that raised concerns within the State Department inspector general’s office.