From pet care to salon bookings: Pompeo ethics abuses reported

No action was recommended against former secretary of state who is widely seen as seeking to run for president in 2024.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated federal ethics rules governing the use of taxpayer-funded resources when he, and his wife, asked State Department employees to carry out personal tasks more than 100 times, a government watchdog said in a report on Friday. Pompeo, who was former President Donald Trump’s last secretary of state, served until January 20, when Republican Trump left the office after being defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in the November election. Pompeo and his wife asked a political appointee and other employees in his office to carry out tasks such as “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 State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in the report.