(WASHINGTON TIMES) As Leon Panetta ends a decades-long Washington career capped by his service as defense secretary, he has said repeatedly he is ready to get back to his family’s bucolic walnut ranch off the central coast of California.
But over the last four years, while serving a CIA director and defense secretary, he already has been spending a lot of time there, continuing a cross-country commute back to Monterey, Calif. nearly every weekend on the taxpayer’s dime.
Even though Mr. Panetta acknowledges traveling back to California on nearly a weekly basis, he has declined to say exactly how many trips he has made over his tenure as CIA director and defense secretary and has failed to respond to inquiries asking for copies of receipts of his reimbursements to the federal government for the personal travel — repayments that are mandated by federal law.
