State Dept. investigating whether Trump officials took gifts meant for foreign dignitaries

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/state-department-watchdog-investigating-missing-trump-gifts-meant-foreign-dignitaries-n1281328


The State Department inspector general is investigating whether Trump administration officials helped themselves to expensive Trump-branded gifts meant for foreign dignitaries, NBC News confirmed Tuesday.

The Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether political appointees of then-President Donald Trump removed the taxpayer-funded presents from the State Department gift vault in January and took them home, a department official with knowledge of the events said. The official said the dollar value of the missing gifts is “significant.”

The latest probe into missing gifts was first reported by The New York Times. The paper identified the missing items as gift bags meant for foreign leaders at a Group of Seven summit that was supposed to be held at Camp David in 2020 but was canceled because of the pandemic. The gift bags included leather portfolios, pewter trays and marble boxes with the presidential seal or Donald and Melania Trump's signatures, the Times reported. The newspaper cited public documents from the federal government, interviews with current and former officials, and statements from several departments and agencies for its story.

The inspector general's broad look at missing gifts during the Trump administration also includes a whiskey bottle worth $5,800 that was given to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the Japanese but then disappeared.

*snip*

[Hoyt]

1. Hope they catch trump & family unloading some of this stuff on eBay or something.