Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell spent almost $300,000 on her taxpayer-funded bank card final fiscal yr, with bills starting from touring to France and a balmy Caribbean island to internet hosting an annual vacation get together, a Herald evaluation exhibits.
Campbell traveled to France final July to attend a convention alongside counterparts from throughout the nation, with the Bay State legal professional basic racking up about $13,627 on state-issued procurement playing cards throughout the journey.
The bills — flights, transportation, and resort expenses — are among the many largest that Campbell incurred between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. Her workplace’s complete spending with P-cards, or procurement playing cards, value taxpayers some $288,146.26 final fiscal yr, based on the Herald’s evaluate.
Campbell spent just below $9,000 on transportation throughout the journey to France, by way of Avis Chauffeur, which “offers a range of high-quality chauffeur-driven services … catering to both individuals and groups.”
The AG’s workplace instructed the Herald that Campbell traveled with a Massachusetts State Police trooper and considered one of her workers members to the convention and associated occasions in Paris and Normandy, hosted by the Nationwide Affiliation of Attorneys Common and the Lawyer Common Alliance.
The AG’s workplace additionally famous {that a} $2,060.29 Delta Air expense on June 28, 2024, in Brussels was associated to the journey, however no expenses had been made within the Belgian metropolis.
“It is unclear why Brussels is denoted,” the workplace mentioned, “as that charge is associated with a flight booked for the AG’s MSP (State Police) detail. No charges were made in Brussels.”
The Related Press reported final August that about half of the U.S. state attorneys basic traveled to France in a “trip cosponsored by a group mostly funded by companies.”
Organizers shared that the convention, in late July, “solely focused on commemorating and paying tribute to the achievements and sacrifices of those who fought in Normandy.” The journey got here virtually two months after the eightieth anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6.
Campbell and an MSP trooper traveled to the Caribbean trip vacation spot of St. Thomas, within the U.S. Virgin Islands, final month to attend the Lawyer Common Alliance’s annual assembly.
Just one expense from the journey is listed on Campbell’s bank card bills for Fiscal 12 months 2025 – a $49 meal at Island Grind, a “go-to coffee and snack spot” at Cyril E. King Airport on the island, providing “fresh-brewed coffee, refreshing drinks, and tasty bites.”
The Herald has requested the entire prices of the journeys to Paris and St. Thomas. The AG’s workplace didn’t instantly share how typically Campbell and her staffers use P-cards whereas they journey.
An assistant legal professional basic traveled to Canada in April for a “deposition in litigation” that the workplace filed, coming with a $548.42 resort keep on the Westley Calgary Downtown. Campbell didn’t journey.
Nearer to house, information present that Campbell’s workplace used the procurement card to cowl $10,286 in overflow house on the Fairfield Inn throughout an annual Nationwide Cyber Crime Convention in Boston, in April.
The AG’s workplace additionally spent $1,220 on meals from Anna’s Taqueria for an annual vacation gathering that the workplace’s Public Safety and Advocacy Bureau held final December. That got here after it used the P-card to cowl $1,287 for a late October gathering on the Dubliner in Boston to “recognize MSP’s successful high-profile takedown involving a high-profile drug trafficking investigation.”
“No alcohol was charged on AGO p-cards,” the workplace instructed the Herald.
This all comes as Campbell is dealing with criticism for not imposing an audit of the Legislature, which 72% of Bay State voters accepted final November. Her workplace acquired a 12% funds improve for this fiscal yr, or $9 million, to help its struggle towards the Trump administration.
These are factors that popped up when Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the state watchdog, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, was reviewing Campbell’s P-card spending.
“The taxpayers are footing the bill for the Attorney General’s expensive junkets,” Craney instructed the Herald on Thursday. “She’s reaping the reward for not auditing the Legislature, which got her a larger budget to spend on highbrow trips. The Attorney General should put as much effort into enforcing the audit of the Legislature … as she does booking out-of-state trips.”
In complete, the AG’s workplace had expenditures stemming from 31 states in FY25, from California to Disney World in Florida, based on P-card knowledge obtained by the Herald from the state Comptroller by way of a public information request.
COMING SUNDAY: The AG’s campaign towards President Donald Trump has value taxpayers 1000’s.
