Judicial Watch: Obamas Spent $79.6 Million on Travel Expenses So Far

July 15, 2016 | 3:25 PM EDT


President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama
greet well-wishers as they arrive for a vacation
at Martha's Vineyard on Aug. 7, 2015. (AP photo)

(CNSNews.com) -- New information obtained from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brings the grand total of known travel expenses of President Obama and his family to $79,630,433.93, Judicial Watch reported Wednesday.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called President Obama’s travel spending a “scandal” and an “abuse of the office.”

"Taxpayers should be incensed that the Secret Service’s resources [are] wasted to provide security for endless golf excursions, political fundraisers, and luxury vacations,” Fitton said.

The non-profit government watchdog organization obtained new information on Secret Service spending on hotel and travel expenses for seven presidential trips in 2014 and 2015, which were mostly for pleasure and fundraising, through a November 2015 lawsuit it filed against DHS because the agency "had failed to respond to 19 FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests" since July 2014.

The priciest of the seven trips - to Seattle and Los Angeles to raise money for Democratic congressional candidates in July 2014 - cost taxpayers $237,731.05 on hotels, $19,888.70 on rental cars, $1,451.40 on air and rail travel, and $2,425,085.50 on Air Force expenses, for a grand total of $2,684,156.60, according to the released records.

The second most expensive trip was a $1,604,380.50 getaway to Westchester, N.Y. and Providence, R.I. that same year.

Obama’s luxury family vacation to Martha’s Vineyard last August cost taxpayers $465,420.49, according to DHS records.

“The First Family’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation, their sixth in the past seven years, was spent at the lavish Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark, a seven-bedroom, nine-bath, 8,100-square-foot estate, sitting on 10 acres of farmland. The estate features 17 rooms, expansive water views of Vineyard Sound, an infinity pool, and a tennis-basketball court. It rents for $50,000 a week,” Judicial Watch reported.

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