"The great case of the missing whiskey bottle. Look, a couple of facts. I have no idea. I assume it wasn't ever touched. It never got to me", Pompeo told Fox news.
Pompeo stated that he had no idea how the State Department "lost this thing".
"Although I saw enormous incompetence at the State Department during my time there. Had it been a case of Diet Coke, I'd have been all over it. I had no idea that they were this was missing, that there was an investigation I hear about this is this is all just crazy talk … I'm happy to if they want to give me a holler and help me give me a holler, I'm happy to try and help them find it", he said.
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© AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall
Earlier this week, the US State Department announced an inquiry into the disappearance of a whiskey bottle worth $5,800 that Pompeo received as a gift from Japan in 2019. As it appears from the list of gifts received by the US federal employees from the foreign sources in 2019, the bottle was gifted to Pompeo on 24 June and its current location is unknown.
US officials can keep gifts that are worth less than $390 and must pay for gifts that are above this amount. Moreover, the US Constitution does not permit accepting gifts from a foreign government under threat of penalty or impeachment.