Pelosi’s Children and Grandchildren Used Military Jets

Update: Judicial Watch provided separate documents from an earlier FOIA request which show that “most, if not all” of the flights did indeed have the Speaker aboard. This is being researched and, until complete, corrections are noted below.

Update II: Commenters provide links to DOD 4515.12-R “DoD Support for Travel of Members and Employees of Congress and DOD 4515.13-R “Air Transportation Eligibility”, both of which seem to indicate any travel by the Speaker’s adult — non-dependent — children and grandchildren is off-limits.

Update III: An article at Mudville Gazette offers additional useful information.

Earlier: This post serves as an update to yesterday’s original revelations that military jets appear to have been improperly utilized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to shuttle her children and grandchildren around the country.

Is it a legitimate use of military jets to transport the Speaker of the House and her favored Congressional coterie for routine travel? Even if you believe it is — and, personally, I do not — any rational taxpayer would admit that it is monumental waste of money. Military flights cost between $5,000 and $20,000 per hour to operate. The Speaker and her passengers routinely reimburse the Air Force $120 to $400 for each flight.

Since Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker in 2006, she’s rung up millions in military travel expenses to commute between San Francisco and Washington.

Worse still, she also appears to have liberally requisitioned entire flights for the personal use of her used these flights to shuttle her children and grandchildren back and forth to DC. That is, unaccompanied by any member of Congress, her kids, in-laws and grandchildren are utilizing entire using military passenger jets for their routine travel needs.

Using the documents obtained by Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, I have discovered the following manifests and travel requests.

22-Feb-2007: A military jet is used for the travel needs of the Speaker’s son, Paul Jr.

13-Apr-2007: A military jet is utilized for the travel of the Speaker’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

15-Jun-2007: A military jet is used for the travel needs of the Speaker’s son, Paul Jr.

09-Jul-2007: A military jet is used for the travel needs of the Speaker’s son, Paul Jr.

13-Jan-2008: A military jet is used for the travel needs of Paul Pelosi, Jr., son of the Speaker.

29-Sep-2008: A military jet is used for the travel needs of Paul Pelosi, Jr., son of the Speaker.

30-Oct-2008: A military jet is used for the Speaker’s daughter and a son-in-law, Peter Kaufman.

25-Nov-2008: A military jet is used for the Speaker’s daughter, her son-in-law and two grandchildren.

* * *
This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch. On dozens of occasions, various of the Pelosi children and grandchildren appear to have traveled with (or possibly even without) the Speaker.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi — in my humble opinion — has abused her office by using military jets for the travel convenience of her children. It would seem that the instances highlighted above constitute, at minimum, a complete disregard for the American taxpayer’s funds.

Pelosi must resign. Or she should be forcibly removed out of office. These activities, if not outright criminal, smell to high heaven.

Link to this story: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/01/pelosi-children-and-grandchildren-get.html

Here is the rule: 

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. J.D. Gordon outlined the rules and restrictions governing Speaker Pelosi’s use of the C-20:

No more than 10 passengers (C-20′s seat only 12 passengers, not including up to 5 crew members);

No travel to political events;

Members of the speaker’s family cannot fly unless the speaker makes a request in writing. The Pelosi family has to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the cost of a coach ticket per person for the travel, as well as for any food;

Members of Congress cannot fly on the plane unless their travel has been cleared with the House Committee on Standards (the Ethics Committee);

Pelosi’s husband can travel for free, but only for official protocol purposes.