WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, repeatedly misused State Department resources and staff for personal business, violating the ethical standards of the department, according to a long-awaited inspector general’s report.
The report details over 100 instances of misconduct that “had no apparent connection to the official business of the Department.”
In one instance, an aide to the former secretary spent government time in 2019 preparing for a meeting with a Kansas political organization, which included one of Pompeo’s donors, the report found.
The couple also had State Department staff “picking up personal items, planning events unrelated to the Department’s mission, and conducting such personal business as pet care and mailing personal Christmas cards,” the report said.
The report confirms that the inspector general’s investigation began with a whistleblower complaint that “that Department staff members were asked to complete tasks of a personal nature” by the Pompeos.
The whistleblower complaint was first obtained by McClatchy in July.
Politico first uncovered and published the inspector general report Friday. McClatchy confirmed its authenticity and the State Department later distributed it publicly.
The inspector general’s office concluded that the couple violated Department’s rules and the standard of conduct for the executive branch — a damaging finding for the former secretary of state and CIA director who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Pompeo issued a strongly worded statement through a spokesman Friday evening blasting the report as “another attempt to slander me and worse, my wife by our own government.”
The former Cabinet secretary and former Kansas congressman called the report a political document and criticized its leak to the media before its official release.
“Every American should fear that their government can traffic in lies and deception in order to smear them and ruin their reputation because they disagree with their political positions,” Pompeo said. “Susan Pompeo served America and America’s diplomats and their families with dignity.”
The report describes a senior adviser who spent over three months preparing for a June 2019 visit to Washington, D.C., by the Kansas chapter of YPO, a leadership organization formerly known as the Young Presidents’ Organization, of which Pompeo is a member.
“The list of trip participants prepared by Mrs. Pompeo and provided to the Senior Advisor stressed the prior political support of several members to Secretary Pompeo’s campaigns for the House of Representatives, but did not reference any connection between the visit and Departmental business,” the report said.
“For example, Mrs. Pompeo’s list noted that one attendee ‘was one of Mike’s biggest supporters during his years in Congress, hosting the single largest fundraiser held by Pompeo for Kansas,’ while another attendee ‘sat on the Pompeo for Kansas Finance Council.’”
The YPO event took place when there was widespread speculation that Pompeo would run for U.S. Senate in 2020, based on his frequent trips to the state and exhortations from Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.
Pompeo said in his statement that at no point did he or his wife misuse taxpayer money or violate ethical rules. He added that their actions were regularly reviewed by dozens of lawyers.
“The report is filled with factual errors and out of context acts between my wife and her friend of over 30 years that have been twisted into lies meant to sully our good work for the people of America,” Pompeo said.
A letter from Pompeo’s attorney to the inspector general’s office confirms the the identity of the aide at the center of investigation as Toni Porter, Pompeo’s former Wichita-based district director during his tenure in Congress. McClatchy first reported the couple’s treatment of Porter was the focus of the inquiry last year.
Porter, who also worked for Pompeo at the CIA, has long-standing ties to the couple.
Pompeo had then-President Donald Trump fire the State Department’s inspector general, Steve Linick, last May, but the work of his office continued under new leadership.
Pompeo’s attorney William Burck accused the inspector general’s office of holding a bias against Pompeo’s family.
“At best, the Draft Report amounts to little more than a compilation of picayune complaints cherry-picked by the drafters in an effort to twist innocent, routine and even praise-worthy behavior into something nefarious,” Burck said in the April 2 letter shared with McClatchy.
Burck contended that Porter’s “common courtesy assistance” to the secretary’s wife did not violate State Department ethics rules because Susan Pompeo was not a State Department employee.
“To get around this rather obvious obstacle to the whole premise of their report, the drafters make the assumption —without a shred of factual support — that Mrs. Pompeo acted at all times at the direction of Mr. Pompeo,” Burck said. “We had thought the time was long past that anyone would consider wives to be mere extensions of their husbands, but that antiquated and offensive view animates the entire Draft Report.”
