http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643026/No-end-sight-brazen-spending-Taxpayers-picked-2-1-million-tab-Secret-Service-protection-Obamas-2013-Africa-vacation.html Judicial Watch got records from the Department of Homeland Security pas part of a Freedom of Information Act request
At least 445 full-time agents billed taxpayers for protecting the president and his family
Press reports put the total cost of the trip at between $60 and $100 million
The expenses came while the White House shut down public tours to underscore austerity measures tied to the budget sequester
Other documents show that flight expenses related to the Africa trip cost another $8.1 million
Security details spent $11,525 preparing for a safari excursion that never happened
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
Published: 12:43 EST, 29 May 2014
When President Barack Obama and his family took a six-day African vacation in 2013, the United States Secret Service spent more than $2.1 million to protect them, according to documents from inside the Department of Homeland Security.
The costs included $953,788 for the security details' hotel accommodations, with the rest chalked up to actual security costs – and 'entertainment.'
The total of $2,189,727 – separate from the whopping $8,104,224 in flight expenses – also included $11,525 spent on preparations for a safari side-trip in Tanzania that the White House later canceled.
The safari was scotched, in part, because the White House feared putting the first family on display, flanked by security forces brandishing high-powered rifles – protecting them from rampaging cheetahs instead of human threats.
Judicial Watch, a center-right watchdog group famed for its FOIA requests and the grumble-inducing lawsuits they inspire in the federal government's executive branch, released the documents Thursday.
DHS provided the documents more than 10 months after they were first requested on July 3, 2013.
'Everyone should be able to afford a $10 million trip once in a while, and at some point just throw $11,000 out the window because – oops, we changed our minds,' a Judicial Watch spokesperson told MailOnline exclusively.
'The problem is that the Obamas are not spending their own money. It is the taxpayers' money. And there is no end in sight to this brazen spending.'
