Did Steven Mnuchin and Louise Linton use a government plane to watch the eclipse?
A watchdog group is attempting to get to the bottom of whether or not Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, used a government plane for a trip centered around viewing the total solar eclipse earlier this week.
Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn "the justification for Secretary Mnuchin's use of a government plane, rather than a commercial flight, for a trip that seems to have been planned around the solar eclipse and to enable the secretary to secure a viewpoint in the path of the eclipse's totality."
Mnuchin and Linton officially traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, so Mnuchin could speak alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and attend a luncheon. Mnuchin and Linton subsequently boarded the plane to Fort Knox "to tour the bullion reserve at the Army post and view the eclipse."
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It is not the only controversy the couple has faced this week. Linton also posted a photo to Instagram of her disembarking the government plane in Kentucky and wrote an ill-advised reply to a commenter who called the getaway "deplorable."
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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