Judicial Watch Press Release, August 5, 2013
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealing that between March 27, 2009, and August 24, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder accrued $4,263,704.01 in total travel expenses. This included $697,525.20 in taxpayer-funded personal travel expenses. The documents were released to Judicial Watch in June in response to an August 2012 Freedom of Information Act request.
Altogether, Holder took 213 out-of-Washington trips during the 42 months for which Judicial Watch obtained records. His 31 personal trips during the time period included two trips to Martha’s Vineyard with a flight-only price tag of $95,184.50, as well as eight trips to Farmingdale, New York, at a flight cost of $118,553.71. On September 9, 2010, Holder took a one-day personal jaunt to Atlantic City that cost the taxpayers $7,408 in flight expenses alone.
Holder’s first taxpayer-funded trip noted in the documents was to an April 2009 “US/Mexico Arms Trafficking Strategy Meeting” (government cost “unavailable”) concerning gun-running between the US and Mexico, an issue in which the attorney general subsequently said he had no involvement. Among other controversial Holder travel expenditures:
- In April, 2011, Holder charged taxpayers $15,452.50 for a speaking engagement at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in New York City.
- In June, 2012, Holder charged $38,108.18 in “business and personal” expenses to address LULAC, a liberal group that strongly supports amnesty for illegal aliens, in Orlando and New Orleans.
- In July, 2012, Holder charged an additional $38,108.18, this time fully billed to the taxpayers, to speak before La Raza, another controversial pro-amnesty group, in Las Vegas.
- Also in July, 2012, Holder flew on a Department of Defense plane, at unknown cost, to speak before the NAACP convention in Houston.
The documents also include Holder’s personal expense form reports for room service and lodging.
As attorney general Holder is a “required use” official who must take government aircraft for all travel while in office due to “security and communications needs,” according to a February 2013 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. The requirement dates most recently from 2004. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, “For personal trips, Holder is required to reimburse the government for the equivalent commercial coach fare, which is often much less than the total trip costs according to the GAO.” Holder usually flies on a Gulfstream V, the same private luxury jet owned by former Apple chairman Steve Jobs and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban.
“I hope these documents help Attorney General Holder understand the burden his unnecessary personal travel places on American taxpayers,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The notion that federal officials such as Holder have access to a fleet of luxury jets for discounted personal travel for “security” reasons should strike most Americans as a scam that needs to be reformed.”
Bankers will get the nod for the noose first, but Eric Holder deserves special consideration along with his partner in high crimes, Obama.
Please don’t give anyone the noose. It’s too quick.
Use your imagination. They can be burned at the stake, chained to the rack, nailed to a cross, or stoned to death, but every one of these bastards has inflicted a lot of pain and suffering on millions of people, and NONE of them deserve a quick exit.
You are correct JR. Now the only problem is deciding what slow, agonizing manner of death should be used to curtail anyone who would aspire to follow in their footsteps. I request suggestions people.
Well I guess that all I can say is that between obama and holder is that they are nothing more that a couple of pimps pimping all of us people. And that is just those two, think of those not even thought about, but are right in front of our faces – one for instance is obamas wife and kids taking vacations on our dollar.
How about your local sheriff and his “confiscation” of your car or house because he planted some drugs on your property. What a gig they got going there, huh!
Well, if you talk about the local sheriff then I would guess if ya got drugs then you would be hooked up and then you would do what I do, let every single person ya know who, and what they did. And then I would be posting flyers every where from a bikers bar bathroom to telephone poles to telling everyone every little thing about who did what to cause the problem they created. And that means everything about their spaun kids and their whorish wife or their faggot boyfreinds. Put the pinch on their low life lifestyle in every way possible, no holds bound. War is war and they started it!!, not we the people but them POS.
100 million dollar safari! That must have been like watching Noah building the ark and getting a special tour prior to setting sail.
James, you just came up with a great idea. We book “safari’s” on Wall Street for the elusive enemy of humanity.
Lol. No. That’s the titanic tour.
$4 million is nothing compared to his bribe income and gun-running profits. God only knows how else this crook is using his position to screw Americans for fun and profit.