A congressional committee is investigating allegations from a whistleblower that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan Pompeo, who often accompanies her husband on diplomatic trips, are tasking their taxpayer-funded security detail with frivolous tasks.
The whistleblower said agents complained they are now “UberEats with a gun” after one was asked in April to pick up Chinese food—without Pompeo in the car. Another example, the whistleblower said, was when a Diplomatic Security special agent was told to pick up the Pompeo’s dog from a groomer.
The Code of Federal Regulations mandates that federal employees “shall not encourage, direct, coerce, or request a subordinate to use official time to perform activities other than those required in the performance of official duties or authorized in accordance with law or regulation.”
Before he was fired Friday, the State Department’s inspector general Steve Linick was looking into potential misuse of an aide to run personal errands for the Pompeo family. President Donald Trump told reporters he had “never heard of” Linick but fired him after “I was asked by the State Department, by Mike.”
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Trump then brushed off any concerns that Pompeo was misusing taxpayer-funded agents saying, “I would rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there.”
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