My name was involved in a curious intrigue this week. One of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aides, in an attempt to get back at the Washington Times for a recent series of critical stories about Clinton’s deputy Jacob Lew, leaked to a reporter unpaid bills for trips I took with the secretary last year.
I understand the bills are now being settled, following yesterday’s story on the Foreign Policy magazine’s website. I was the Times’ diplomatic correspondent for nine years, until June.
When reporters travel with the secretary, the State Department charges their respective media for the plane ride and any costs incurred on the ground, such as motorcade vehicles and filing centers. Sometimes, those bills are sent out months after a trip, but every time I received one, I gave it to the appropriate person at the Times, along with the original trip authorization from senior management.
I’m told that four unpaid bills have been sitting in a folder in the accounting office for months. Shortly before I left the paper, I was asked how important it is to pay them quickly, given the Times’ tight finances. I pointed out that the bills are overdue, but that was the last time the subject came up.
The Times has had a new editor since January, and it’s possible the issue was never raised with him. It appears he has now made sure the matter is resolved.
This was certainly a very creative way for the State Department to get its money back. Isn’t the Washington game just precious? The stories the Times has been running about Lew have to do with his financial disclosures from his time at Citigroup, before joining the Obama administration. Since I haven’t worked at the paper for two months, I obviously had nothing to do with those stories — nor did I have a hand in any articles about Lew that may have been written before my departure.
Lew has been deputy secretary of state for management since January 2009, and earlier this summer, President Obama chose him as the next director of the White House Office of Management and Budget — a post he held at the end of the Clinton administration.
Continue reading about My trips with Clinton back in the news
She lives in Notting Hill, he in Washington’s slightly bohemian equivalent, Adams Morgan. Their 14-month marriage has been a whirlwind of weekend rendezvous and transatlantic phone calls. The world sees them on television, sometimes even sharing a split screen, more frequently than they see each other in person.
But the prospect of their first child — due in early April — has already started to change the way they live. They have spent more time together over the past few months and, though the decision where the baby will be born is yet to be taken, they both realise that compromises will be inevitable.
For CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, and State Department spokesman James Rubin, the forthcoming member of their family has become a way to show the world that “some of us can have everything” — successful careers and a normal personal life.
