$1M Mnoocher

Treasury boss’ bill to taxpayers for military flights

TREASURY Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent $1 million in taxpayer money on military aircraft between the spring and fall of 2017, newly released travel records show.

The former Goldman Sachs banker is one of several Trump cabinet members whose pricey travel has come under scrutiny — he famously even requested a military plane for his honeymoon with wife Louise Linton, citing a need to access secure communications during the trip to Great Britain, France and Italy.

He claimed it would be “the most cost-effective means to secure communications during this trip — both on the ground and in-transit,” according to records obtained by good government group CREW that were made public Thursday.

Mnuchin eventually withdrew the request “after finding another option.”

Mnuchin — who is worth an estimated $300 million — drew ire when he and Linton took a government aircraft to Lexington and Fort Knox, Ky., during the August solar eclipse that was visible there.

Mnuchin has said he didn’t care about the eclipse.

“People in Kentucky took this stuff very seriously. Being a New Yorker, I don’t have any interest in watching the eclipse,” he said at a conference afterwards.Yet the travel records shed new light on the couple’s potentially reckless use of taxpayer money for travel when commercial flights were available.

The report details the cost of Mnuchin’s trips, including a two-day jaunt to Bari, Italy, for a G-7 finance ministers meeting that cost more than $300,000.

He last took a military flight on a trip to the Middle East in October.

Office of Management and Budget guidelines on the use of government aircraft intend to “restrict the operation of government aircraft to defined official purposes.”

“Official travel” comprises “travel to meet mission requirements, required use travel, and other travel for the conduct of agency business.”

Travel to give speeches, to attend conferences and meetings, or make routine site visits is excluded from “mission requirements.”

Mnuchin has denied that he used taxpayer money to fund personal travel.

A rep for the Treasury Department told Politico Mnuchin had not requested any military aircraft since the Middle East trip, and noted that its inspector general found last year that Mnuchin hadn’t broken any laws.