Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s honeymoon jet: Divorced from ethics? He didn't need a government plane. This looks like another attempt by a wealthy Trump administration official to get a freebie from taxpayers.

Norman Eisen | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Here’s how much Steven Mnuchin's honeymoon jet would’ve cost taxpayers Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has come under fire for using government aircraft for personal use.

There has been an uproar about Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s attempt to use a government jet costing taxpayers up to $25,000 an hour for his honeymoon with Louise Linton. This revelation comes weeks after Mnuchin and Linton traveled to Ft. Knox, Ky. on another government plane, possibly to view the recent eclipse.

Getting to the bottom of all this must await the result of an investigation by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General and a lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. But there is already reason to believe that Mnuchin’s honeymoon request was another attempt by one of the wealthiest members of the Trump administration to get a government freebie.

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For starters, the Treasury Department’s explanation of the honeymoon-related request just doesn’t hold up. The department said Mnuchin asked for a government plane because he needed a way to communicate securely during his travels. But the U.S. government has many other ways of providing secure means of communications to its senior officials when they travel. If an official happens to be temporarily unavailable while he or she is in transit, there are designated subordinates who can be authorized to make decisions in the event of a true emergency.

From my personal experience working as White House ethics counsel and as an ambassador who frequently welcomed traveling cabinet members, I know that Mnuchin’s request to use a government plane for personal travel is contrary to long practice by his predecessors. Other than the secretaries of State and Defense, and a few other senior military and law enforcement figures, American officials generally do not fly government jets — especially not for personal travel like a honeymoon.

Mnuchin’s purported justification must also be assessed in the context of his apparent repeated disregard for other ethics issues. In addition to the troubling flight on the day of the eclipse, he also failed to disclose $100 million in assets from his initial financial disclosure form. He used his government position to promote the Lego Batman movie he produced. He installed his wife in a business position that raised ethics issues until it was reversed.

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We cannot blame Mnuchin alone for all of this. His boss, President Trump, has created the environment for these kinds of serial ethics problems through his own contempt for ethics and law. He has kept his highly conflicted personal business interests, and used the Oval Office to promote them. No wonder Mnuchin may feel entitled to use public office for private gain. Improper use of government jets is small beer compared to the emoluments the president is collecting.

We should insist that Trump return to the 40-year bipartisan tradition of presidents divesting from their business interests and instilling a culture of responsibility and ethics in their administrations. Reining in his Treasury secretary would be a start, and Trump setting an example himself would be better still.

Norman Eisen, chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama and a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, is chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Follow him on Twitter: @NormEisen