Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell spent nearly $300,000 on her taxpayer-funded credit card last fiscal year, with expenses ranging from traveling to France and a balmy Caribbean island to hosting an annual holiday party, a Herald analysis shows.
Campbell traveled to France last July to attend a conference alongside counterparts from across the nation, with the Bay State attorney general racking up about $13,627 on state-issued procurement cards during the trip.
The expenses — flights, transportation, and hotel charges — are among the largest that Campbell incurred between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. Her office’s total spending with P-cards, or procurement cards, cost taxpayers some $288,146.26 last fiscal year, according to the Herald’s review.
Campbell spent just under $9,000 on transportation during the trip to France, through Avis Chauffeur, which “offers a range of high-quality chauffeur-driven services … catering to both individuals and groups.”
The AG’s office told the Herald that Campbell traveled with a Massachusetts State Police trooper and one of her staff members to the conference and related events in Paris and Normandy, hosted by the National Association of Attorneys General and the Attorney General Alliance.
The AG’s office also noted that a $2,060.29 Delta Air expense on June 28, 2024, in Brussels was related to the trip, but no charges were made in the Belgian city.
“It is unclear why Brussels is denoted,” the office said, “as that charge is associated with a flight booked for the AG’s MSP (State Police) detail. No charges were made in Brussels.”
The Associated Press reported last August that about half of the U.S. state attorneys general traveled to France in a “trip cosponsored by a group mostly funded by companies.”
Organizers shared that the conference, in late July, “solely focused on commemorating and paying tribute to the achievements and sacrifices of those who fought in Normandy.” The trip came almost two months after the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6.
Campbell and an MSP trooper traveled to the Caribbean vacation destination of St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, last month to attend the Attorney General Alliance’s annual meeting.
Only one expense from the trip is listed on Campbell’s credit card expenses for Fiscal Year 2025 – a $49 meal at Island Grind, a “go-to coffee and snack spot” at Cyril E. King Airport on the island, offering “fresh-brewed coffee, refreshing drinks, and tasty bites.”
The Herald has requested the total costs of the trips to Paris and St. Thomas. The AG’s office did not immediately share how often Campbell and her staffers use P-cards while they travel.
An assistant attorney general traveled to Canada in April for a “deposition in litigation” that the office filed, coming with a $548.42 hotel stay at the Westley Calgary Downtown. Campbell did not travel.
Closer to home, records show that Campbell’s office used the procurement card to cover $10,286 in overflow space at the Fairfield Inn during an annual National Cyber Crime Conference in Boston, in April.
The AG’s office also spent $1,220 on food from Anna’s Taqueria for an annual holiday gathering that the office’s Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau held last December. That came after it used the P-card to cover $1,287 for a late October gathering at 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 office told the Herald.
This all comes as Campbell is facing criticism for not enforcing an audit of the Legislature, which 72% of Bay State voters approved last November. Her office received a 12% budget increase for this fiscal year, or $9 million, to support its fight against the Trump administration.
Those are points 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 told 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 total, the AG’s office had expenditures stemming from 31 states in FY25, from California to Disney World in Florida, according to P-card data obtained by the Herald from the state Comptroller through a public records request.
COMING SUNDAY: The AG’s crusade against President Donald Trump has cost taxpayers thousands.
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