Mike Pompeo has "no recollection" of receiving a $5,800 bottle of Japanese whiskey as a gift

Came here to say this. I bet you a donut it was Rudy that guzzled it.

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Many companies based in the US forbid their executives and managers from participating in these practices, too. I don’t envy people whose jobs involve creating and enforcing policies that draw the lines between international diplomacy, international law, gift-giving, and bribery. Years ago, I worked for a company with an international banking division. Employees had to take annual courses and pass exams on how to respond or who to contact if we were offered anything of value.

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Someone I know used to work for a company where all the executive gifts were given away to employees in a year end draw. I

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I worked for someone who got a box of chocolates that was over the limit, but it only counted if she was the only one who got it. If it got divided among ten people, then legally, each of them got a gift that was 1/10th the value. Cut to everyone in the lab stuffing their face with fancy chocolate.

Of course, for a $5,800 bottle, that’s a lot of dividing up. Does Pompeo even have that many people who would trust a drink he offered?

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“My cry-yent has no reckoyekshun (hic) uv resivving the bottle of whick-see and duz nhot have en knee now ledge what haffen to it (belch).”

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so people know what they are supposed to do officially, but I suspect a lot of them don’t actually follow it. There will be plenty of people who will treat it like taking office supplies to use at home.

I have friends that work for companies that make everyone do the course, but also have employees whose sole job it is is to hide the details so that it appears the company is complying.

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Didn’t you know? The warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark is mostly filled with expensive bottles of whiskey

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I guess that’s true for folks who don’t mind fines, jail time, and losing their jobs. If they cost a company enough money or loss of reputation, they might never work in that industry again. Past penalties paid at the corporate level (second link) look like ones only companies with deep pockets could afford to pay on a regular basis:

https://www.sec.gov/enforce/sec-enforcement-actions-fcpa-cases

The company I worked for created an environment in which employees did not want to cause the firm to be investigated. There were enough audits and other regulations to follow, so that would mean more scrutiny and the work associated with it. What gift/reward could possibly be worth all that risk? Most of the items reported weren’t equal in value to an employee’s regular paycheck.

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Yeah, they still should’ve known the rules and followed them. I mean, FFS, in my work as a federal contractor I can’t even let someone buy me a $5 lunch when I’m out on a work trip! And I know that. Like @PsiPhiGrrrl wrote, this is extremely common in corporations and government.
But, truly, can’t say I’m surprised.

That’s a really nice way to handle the sitatuation! Very cool.

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Geeze, as a mid-range civil servant, I’d have been in deep merde if I tried this as a defense.

We couldn’t accept even a free cup of coffee if it was offered to us while executing our duties unless the company we were at routinely gave such things to anyone who entered their premises.

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There was a news story a little while ago about storing all the foreign gifts that Canadian PMs have received over the years, but were not allowed to have. Lots of expensive luxury jewelry gathering dust. Some of the stuff, like art does seem to get displayed in government buildings, but they have more art than space to hang it.

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I really, really hope some minor functionary in the State Department, or a Pompeo intern who’s doing shit work for a couple college credits, got to enjoy this.

I have yet to see any evidence that there were any high-level officials in that mal-administration that weren’t corrupt to the bone, and/or incompetent as well.
Seems that those qualities were prerequisites for those jobs, and probably not just for the high-level positions.

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Remember that the non-appointee level people are career civil servants who work for and are dedicated to the institutions they serve. They serve across administrations and are are usually highly competent and ethical (at least about this sort of thing, there is a limit to how morally ethical you be while serving a nation with the domestic and foreign policy goals of the US, of course). They are literally the machinery that keeps everything running and prevents things from completely going off the rails when idiots are appointed to high positions, which is why the GQP hates them and calls them the deep state

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Lawyers: “Never say ‘yes’ or ‘no’… especially when under oath; they may have incontrovertible evidence that disproves your testimony. Always say, ‘I have no recollection.’”

When faced with the “no recollection” defense, has any prosecutor ever hit them with, “Does that mean that (X) may/may not have occurred, and you simply can’t remember?”

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Of course!
Which is why I referred to high-level officials; I should have included appointees, as well.
Apparently, more than a bottle of booze was missing:
At-least-20-types-of-gifts-missing-from-state-departments-vault
…U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that dozens or hundreds of individual items that were previously in the State Department’s gift vault are now nowhere to be found.
The officials said that most of the missing items were gifts that the U.S. had planned to give to other countries, with many bearing former President Trump’s insignia…

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I was referring more to that - I am glad though that you do see the distinction. I have a friend that has been working through the FSO process for a long time (she put things on hold between 2016 and 2020 for some reason…) and it just bothered me knowing her level of competence and dedication :slightly_smiling_face:.

“The officials said that most of the missing items were gifts that the U.S. had planned to give to other countries, with many bearing former President Trump’s insignia…”

Ok…I guess I do kinda have to wonder if, despite their level of professionalism, it’s possible that some of that found it way into the trash given the lack of love lost between the State Department machinery and the previous administration :sweat_smile:

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Yeah, the “I’m a new and incompetent Trump political hire. I can’t be expected to know or follow ethics rules.” should not be a legal defense.

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“Objection! Calls for speculation.”

(Or so my Law & Order University JD suggests could happen…)

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I do see the distinction, & mea culpa if my brush was too broad.
It seemed like the previous [mal]administration was intent on stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down… & they brought crow-bars for the stuff that was.

Wouldn’t be surprised if some of that stuff shows up on Ebay. Or in a storeroom at Mar-a-Lago.

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