Ben Carson Tries to Cancel $31,000 Dining Furniture Purchase for HUD Office<br />By GLENN THRUSHMARCH 1, 2018<br />WASHINGTON — Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, is attempting to cancel a $31,000 order for a customized hardwood dining room table, chairs, sideboard<br />and hutch the day after the chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced an investigation into the refurbishment of his HUD office.<br />According to Mr. Williams, neither Mr. Carson nor his wife, Candy Carson, had any prior knowledge of the order, although<br />a whistle-blower has said Mrs. Carson had pressured her to circumvent a $5,000 statutory limit on renovation expenses.<br />While his intentions are to cancel it, we have to see what happens.”<br />Representative Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Oversight Committee, sent Mr. Carson’s staff a three-page letter on Wednesday demanding an explanation<br />for the purchase of the dining room set, which might have violated a federal law requiring congressional approval for any office renovation expense exceeding $5,000<br />“At the request of the secretary, the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set,”<br />Armstrong Williams, Mr. Carson’s business manager and an informal adviser, said on Thursday.
