The U.S. Secret Service overpaid a total of $4 million to four 2016 presidential campaigns for plane travel in the lead-up to the election, according to a report released Thursday.
The Government Accountability Office found Secret Service officials were aware additional payments were made as part of the agency’s protection of President Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Ben Carson’s campaigns eight months before the 2016 election.
But it’s unclear whether reimbursements have been processed as campaign committees were given until May 31 to repay the government, per the GAO report.
The mistake occurred because the Secret Service did not adhere to its own policy of paying campaigns the cheaper of either “the lowest commercially available first-class airfare, or the pro rata fare,” the GAO report states.
Instead, the Secret Service simply paid the pro rata fare, defined as “the cost of the agent’s seat on the charter flight calculated by taking the total cost of the charter divided by the number of passengers on board.”
The government watchdog also criticized the Secret Service for not reverting to its “longstanding policy,” in place since at least 1977, when they discovered the error.
The Secret Service paid $17.1 million to the quartet of campaigns to cover costs incurred by agents aboard charter flights, but the GAO report does not break down how much each campaign was overpaid nor how they have responded to letters demanding repayment.
