Mnuchin requested government jet for European honeymoon: report

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requested the use of a government jet for his honeymoon in Europe earlier this year, ABC News reported Wednesday.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General is now investigating Mnuchin’s request for the plane to take him and his wife, Louise Linton, on their honeymoon to Scotland, France and Italy, according to ABC.

The jet Mnuchin requested was a U.S. Air Force jet that can reportedly cost about $25,000 an hour to operate.

{mosads}A Treasury Department spokesman told ABC that Mnuchin requested the jet to make sure he had a secure line of communication, but that he dropped the request after they found that other ways to communicate were available.

“The Secretary is a member of the National Security Council and has responsibility for the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,” the spokesman said in a statement. “It is imperative that he have access to secure communications, and it is our practice to consider a wide range of options to ensure he has these capabilities during his travel, including the possible use of military aircraft.”

Mnuchin is already facing an inquiry from his department’s inspector general after he and Linton traveled to Fort Knox, Ky., at the time of the solar eclipse earlier this summer, raising questions over whether the couple had used government resources to view the event.

“We are reviewing the circumstances of the Secretary’s August 21 flight … to determine whether all applicable travel, ethics, and appropriation laws and policies were observed,” counsel Rich Delmar said in a statement at the time.