Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in August skipped the country with his one-time mistress but this time, his office didn't announce that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Sanford disclosed Friday that he had jetted to Israel with his now-fiancée María Belén Chapur at his side. Chapur became widely known as the Agentinian broadcast journalist who Sanford, then governor of South Carolina, rendezvoused with in her country when his office claimed to an incredulous news media that he was out hiking. After news broke about the tryst, Sanford's wife moved out of the governor's mansion and filed for divorce.
The Israel trip was with a large group of lawmakers and a few aides that was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation. In all, the trip cost more than $18,500, with a little more than $9,000 paying for Chapur. The House ethics manual allows private sponsors to pay for a "relative" of the member of Congress too. The manual doesn't define what constitutes a relative but the Ethics Committee specifically granted Sanford permission to bring Chapur along.
This was Sanford's first privately sponsored trip since coming back to Congress after more than a decade's absence.
