National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien returned to Washington, DC from a taxpayer-funded jaunt around Europe and Israel to address the breach of multiple Cabinet Departments by Russian government-backed hackers, Politico reports.
Axios reported yesterday, O’Brien took his wife, Lo-Mari, to London, Paris, Rome and Tel Aviv for a holiday getaway which was supposed to extend into next week as many nations have barred travel into their countries by Americans because of the continued spread of the coronavirus in the US.
On his way back to Washington, O’Brien spent a little time doing work by visiting French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the hack of systems.
While O’Brien was jaunting around Europe, the National Security Council held an emergency meeting Saturday to discover the scope of the intrusion. The NSC has stated it has scheduled additional meetings to occur after O’Brien’s return.
O’Brien and Lo-Mari has already visited Israel, where O’Brien had a cursory meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and spoke at an international conference hosted by Israel that was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is unknown if O’Brien and Lo-Mari had the opportunity to attend the private tour of the famed Paris museum the Louvre, which has been closed to the public during the pandemic.