Nancy Pelosi’s Costly Junkets at Taxpayer Expense Exposed

Judicial Watch Exposes the Full Facts About Frequent Flyer 
Nancy Pelosi’s Costly Junkets at Taxpayer Expense

 
Dear Editor/Broadcaster,

President Trump has now shut down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s costly attempt to use a military aircraft for a “public relations event.”

And this is not the first time, Ms Pelosi has been caught attempting such flagrant and costly shenanigans.

As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton wrote in a 2010 (yes, that far back!) “Weekly Update”:

Talk about arrogance. Even in the face of a Judicial Watch investigation spotlighting Nancy Pelosi’s abuse of military air craft, the House Speaker shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, Speaker Pelosi may have set a frequent flyer record for taxpayer-financed luxury jet travel.

We recently obtained new documents from the United States Air Force detailing Speaker Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010. And they pretty much tell the same, outrageous story as previous documents we’ve uncovered and released.

Here are the highlights from the newest batch of documents, which we obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on January 25, 2009:

• Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 85 trips, covering 206,264 miles, from March 2, 2009 through June 7, 2010. Pelosi, her guests and Air Force personnel logged a total of 428.6 hours on these flights.
• Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights. On June 20, 2009, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons joined a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to San Francisco International Air Port. That flight included $143 in on-flight expenses for food and other items. On July 2, 2010, Pelosi took her grandson on a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is northeast of San Francisco.

As regular readers of the Update may recall, according to previous documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. Seriously, review these documents for yourself and you can see that Nancy Pelosi repeatedly turned indispensable Air Force aircraft into congressional party planes.

For example, purchases for one Pelosi-led congressional delegation traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

Judicial Watch also previously uncovered internal Department of Defense (DOD) email correspondence detailing attempts by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the Speaker’s last minute cancellations and changes.

For example, in response to a series of requests for military aircraft, one Defense Department official wrote, “Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi’s team] if they really intend to do all of these or are they just picking every weekend?… [T]here’s no need to block every weekend ‘just in case’….” The email also notes that Pelosi’s office had, “a history of canceling many of their past requests.”

(By the way, you may remember that Judicial Watch also uncovered a scandal at the Pentagon related to investigations into congressional military travel. According to documents we uncovered, Pentagon officials were colluding with congressional members, including staff at Pelosi’s office, prior to releasing documents related to military travel. Click here to read more.)

All of the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch lead to one conclusion: Pelosi’s abusive use of military aircraft demonstrates a shocking lack of regard for the American taxpayer and the men and women who serve in the U.S. Air Force.

In January 2011, Judicial Watch’s Corruption Chronicles exposed Pelosi’s use of taxpayer dollars on an extravagant family farewell getaway to an exotic resort in Hawaii masked as an official trip. And, in July 2011, Judicial Watch detailed the high expenses of several other questionable trips at taxpayer expense.

In short, whey it comes to accumulating frequent flyer miles, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi owes the American taxpayer a massive debt of gratitude.

Sincerely,


Carter L. Clews
Director of Communications

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