A 5800 whisky bottle Japan gave to Mike Pompeo is missing The State Department is looking for it

A bottle of whisky has gone missing, and the State Department is investigating.

This is not your grandfather’s bottle of Jameson. It is a $5,800 bottle of Japanese whisky the Japanese government gave to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, according to a filing in the federal register made public this week, and it’s quickly become a high-profile whodunit.

Japan presented the bottle on June 24, 2019, the filing reported. Pompeo was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit at the time, so it is unknown whether the former secretary ever received the bottle himself. Pompeo visited Japan later that week for the Group of 20 summit.

“Mr. Pompeo has no recollection of receiving the bottle of whisky and does not have any knowledge of what happened to it. He is also unaware of any inquiry into its whereabouts. He has no idea what the disposition was of this bottle of whisky,” William A. Burck, his lawyer, wrote in an emailed statement.

It is illegal for U.S. officials to accept such gifts from foreign governments above a certain dollar amount â€" $390, at the time Japan gave the whisky. Still, world leaders and diplomats often present tokens of appreciation to the president or top diplomats. “Non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and U.S. Government,” the filing disclosing gifts to federal employees from foreign governments in 2019 notes, so the items are accepted and become the property of the federal government.

On the list that year: a ceramic dragon head presented to President Donald Trump by the president of Vietnam, a Brazilian hardwood bench carved to resemble a jaguar (from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also to Trump) and an abridged first-edition copy of “The Second World War” by Winston Churchill, given to Trump by Queen Elizabeth II.

All of those items were turned over to the National Archives. But the location of the Japanese whisky is listed as “Unknown.”

“The Department is looking into the matter and has an ongoing inquiry,” a footnote reads.

The filing did not offer additional detail about when and how the disappearance was discovered. The State Department did not immediately respond to emailed questions about the progress of the inquiry.

The Japanese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Japanese media has not yet reported any official comment from Japan.

The giving and receiving of diplomatic gifts is overseen by the Office of the Chief of Protocol. During the Trump administration, the office was plagued by allegations of mismanagement resulting in an inspector general report last May describing an environment of yelling, cursing, “over consuming alcohol” and intimidating and abusive behavior.

One former protocol chief was accused of carrying a whip around the office to intimidate employees. The State Department denied some of the allegations in the report at the time.

An internal watchdog report from the State Department Inspector General’s office released in April also found that Pompeo broke federal ethics rules when he and his wife asked staffers to book restaurant reservations, take care of his dog and run other errands unrelated to official business. Pompeo rejected the report’s assertions at the time.

This isn’t the first foreign gift to disappear from federal custody.

President Harry S. Truman established a presidential library to donate back to the government the gifts he had received. In March 1978, two men broke into the library, shattered the glass case in the lobby and made off with three gemstone-studded ceremonial swords and two daggers. The blades had been gifts from the Shah of Iran, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the King of Saudi Arabia.

The thieves carried off the heist in under a minute, the Daily Beast reported. More than four decades later, the case is still active and unsolved.

The price tag of the missing whisky bottle captured the attention of commentators on social media Thursday. Japan’s first designated whisky distillery opened in 1923.

Japanese varieties have gained global notoriety since then â€" and some can fetch thousands of dollars. The most expensive bottle ever sold, a 55-year-old Yamazaki, went for roughly $795,000 at an auction in Hong Kong in 2020.

Simon Denyer in Tokyo contributed reporting.

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