Pompeo spent $10k on engraved pens for notorious "Madison Dinners"

[blogslut]

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/mike-pompeo-spent-10k-engraved-madison-dinner-pen/

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent more than $10,000 in taxpayer funds on engraved Madison Dinner-branded pens that he gifted to attendees of the notorious dinner parties, according to records obtained by CREW in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The guests included high-profile Republican donors, who could be politically useful if Pompeo runs for office in the future. This new disclosure brings the total amount of taxpayer funds spent on the dinners to at least $50,000, several thousand more than previously reported.

The new records reveal that the pens, which were custom-embossed with Madison Dinner logos, cost the Department at least $10,433 for a total of 400 pens.

The records also show that the pens were engraved in and shipped from China. As Secretary of State, Pompeo was a vocal critic of “Chinese trade abuses that cost American jobs and strike enormous blows to the economies all across America.”

One employee from the Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol spent an inordinate amount of time procuring the pens, sending more than a dozen emails to the vendor over the span of several weeks in July and August 2018. The emails show the employee–whose name the agency redacted for “personal privacy” reasons–corresponding with a sense of urgency...

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Mike Pompeo might as well kiss his budding political career goodbye. Also, for such a wasteful

expense of taxpayer dollars, he should repay the treasury department the costs of those pens and any labor associated with procuring the pens. Good god, these people feel like they are kings and queens!

And they talk about their usual drivel, the tax deficits, deficit spending (which they (republicans) increased by $6 trillion dollars). Every time the Senate or House meets, there should be a huge poster set up detailing such extravagant expenditures by republicans. They should constantly be reminded of republican hypocrisy and deficit spending by republicans nonstop, 24x7.

[Jerry2144]

2. When I first read

When I first read the headline, I thought there was an i inserted in the word, pens. Headline is funnier that way. Pompeo spent 10K on engraved penis...

[pandr32]

3. What a waste, and it only benefited Pompeo

[TheRealNorth]

4. I would like to know more about the company that got the contract...

And what link they have to the Trump Crime family. My guess is they were being paid back for something.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Maraya1969]

6. Isn't this against the law?

[sarcasmo]

7. Taxpayers spent 10k on pens.

[gratuitous]

10. Get real

You don't expect Secretary First in His Class at West Point to spend his own money to stroke his ego?

[TeamPooka]

8. some more info

here are the invoices
https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FL-2020-00134-CREW-January-2021-Production.pdf

Here's the company
https://catalog.shopmadden.com/search/?Query=cross+pen&PriceFrom=0.00&PriceTo=4000.00

based on these I believe this is the pen ordered and personalized, the Cross Calais
https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Calais-Chrome-Lacquer-Ballpoint/dp/B001YQGQSE/ref=asc_df_B001YQGQSE/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167133770849&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14041827022892687945&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031624&hvtargid=pla-304246830462&psc=1

[crickets]

9. Grrr. K&R for visibility.