Mnuchin: I would have paid for government plane myself

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he would have personally paid for the use of a government jet for his honeymoon, following a report that he had requested the use of such a plane in order to have secure communications. 

“I didn’t use a government plane on my honeymoon, and if I had I would have paid for it myself. #FakeNews,” Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.

I didn’t use a government plane on my honeymoon, and if I had I would have paid for it myself. #FakeNews

— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) September 14, 2017 

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Mnuchin earlier Thursday defended his request to use a government plane for his honeymoon in June, saying “this had nothing to do with convenience. This was purely about national security.”

Mnuchin, who is a member of the National Security Council and oversees the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, claimed that the story was “misreported” by the media.

The Office of the Inspector General in the Treasury Department is investigating the request for an Air Force jet for a European honeymoon with Mnuchin’s wife Louise Linton, ABC News reported earlier this week.

Mnuchin and his wife are facing a similar inquiry from the inspector general for an August trip to Fort Knox in Kentucky, looking into whether the two used government resources to view the total solar eclipse.