Another (very expensive) shoe has dropped about Newt Gingrich’s personal spending. Following reports in May that Gingrich had previously taken a $250,000-$500,000 line of credit from Tiffany & Co. jewelers, it has now been reported that he had another line of credit with the company — between $500,000 and $1 million.
Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post reports:
Joe DeSantis, a spokesman for Gingrich, said that the candidate’s personal financial disclosure filing, which is due within 30 days of his formal entrance into the presidential race, will “show that the Gingriches had a $500,000 to $1 million line of credit at Tiffany’s, that it has a zero balance, and it has been closed.”
DeSantis added that all debts to Tiffany had been paid in full. He offered no details about when the second line of credit was taken out, what it was used for or when it was closed.
Gingrich previously defended himself on the $250,000-$500,000 account, saying it had all been paid off — and that President Obama could learn from that.
“On the Tiffany’s thing I’m totally mystified,” Gingrich said in May. “I owe no personal debts. None. Of course I paid off our house, we paid off our cars, we run four small businesses, we happen to be successful. We reported accurately what we were doing, it’s all after tax income, none of it isn’t publicly known. If Obama followed our pattern on fiscal responsibility the United States would currently be running a surplus and buying back debt from the Chinese.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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