It appears that Whitmer the wicked witch quietly used taxpayer money to buy a private broom ride to visit her “ailing father in Florida.” She claims that she went on business. The conservative chairman of Michigan’s House Oversight Committee is trolling the liberal Democrat Governor hard.
Answers from Whitmer
The Republican and also conservative chairman of the House Oversight Committee for the state of Michigan, Steve Johnson, has a list of 43 sharply pointed questions for liberal Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer about her recent trip to Florida.
He mailed it out on Thursday with a warning that “further investigations may occur if she does not answer within a week.”
The Governor so popular that right-wing extremists tried to kidnap her “has come under scrutiny” for using a private jet instead of traveling at her own expense on commercial transport. The jet is owned by “prominent business executives” who rent it out when they aren’t using it.
The flight Whitmer booked racked up a $27,521 bill. She diligently forked over $855 toward the total and sent the rest to “Michigan Transition 2019.” That’s a nonprofit fund “initially established for inauguration events.” This wasn’t one of those.
Nobody is talking about who else joined Whitmer on the vacation or if she had the entire party jet to herself. One thing that did turn up is that the flight company “did not have proper FAA certification.” Oops. At least it didn’t crash. JoAnne Huls, the governor’s chief of staff, continues to swear up and down that billing the fund was legal.
They do it all the time. The “account defrays the governor’s travel costs when they are consistent with the fund’s purposes.” Aha! So how is visiting an ill family member one of the fund’s purposes? That’s exactly what Wayland Rep. Steve Johnson wants to know.
A complaint with the IRS
Conservative group Michigan Rising Action started the ball rolling by filing a legal complaint with the IRS, alleging that the “personal March 12-15 trip” Whitmer made “fell outside the purpose of the account.”
The very next day Johnson launched an inquiry in the State legislature. Nobody is buying the story that the Governor took that flight legitimately on State business and they’re demanding that she prove it or face the consequences.
The fund which Whitmer is trying to defraud out of a private plane ride has a defined purpose. To “promote the common good and general welfare of the residents of, and visitors to, the state of Michigan and to lessen the burdens of government.”
Nobody seems to be able to explain how this particular expense voucher isn’t “a private benefit to the governor.”
Whitmer denies any wrongdoing. She’s Snow White, not the Wicked Witch, she insists. The governor keeps saying that she was doing work as governor during the trip but when “a family member of mine needs a little help, though, I’m going to show up.” Phone calls from the plane to people in Michigan don’t count.
Johnson is demanding to know all the juicy details about “who else was on the plane and whether there was any official or state purpose for the travel.” These questions “are both reasonable and important to giving the people of Michigan certainty that their governor is following proper procedures and acting within the bounds of the law.”