Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan, violated federal ethics rules by allegedly using public resources to request employees to carry out personal tasks for them, according to an inspector general report.
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The April report by the State Department’s internal watchdog noted that the Pompeos made over 100 requests to employees to conduct work that “appeared to be personal in nature.” The report said the couple asked personal items to be picked up and for events to be planned unrelated to the department, among other miscellaneous tasks.
“After receiving a complaint that the Pompeos directed staff in the Office of the Secretary and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to conduct tasks of a personal nature, OIG opened a review of these allegations,” the report said. “In doing so, OIG found evidence of over 100 requests to department employees that are inconsistent with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the executive branch or raised questions about the proper use of department resources.”
The alleged personal tasks required time by employees while they were both on- and off-duty, and they were not compensated for the non-department work, the report said.
Allegations about the Pompeos’ behavior came shortly after the Trump administration fired the former department inspector general, Steve Linick, in May 2020. Linick was nominated to the role by former President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2013.
The long-awaited report was delayed in part because of Pompeo’s refusal to commit to an interview until late last December, a month before he left office, according to a report by Politico, which first obtained the report.
Because Pompeo is no longer a federal employee and his wife was not one, the department can’t do much to penalize the couple for the reported violations. However, it is now on record as Pompeo has been floated as a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024.
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The inspector general’s office requested the department, now led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to update its guidelines on appropriate use of staff and general funds, a task Blinken reportedly accepted.
The State Department did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
