CHARLESTON, S.C., July 4 (UPI) -- A three-day trip by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to Argentina last year that included a visit to his mistress mixed business and pleasure, records show.
Records examined Saturday by the Columbia, S.C., newspaper The State show Sanford left behind an official state trade delegation bird hunting in Cordoba, Argentina to go to Buenos Aires, a trip he has acknowledged was to see his lover, Maria Belen Chapur.
Sanford has reimbursed taxpayers about $3,300 for the trip, the newspaper said.
South Carolina Commerce Department spokeswoman Kara Borie said the department set up the 2008 Argentine meetings at the governor's request, even though the U.S. Department of Commerce had not conducted a trade mission in the country between 2002 and 2008.
Borie said Sanford did not steer the trip toward Buenos Aires and it was just a coincidence that the governor had a secret lover there.
"In this case, since the governor was already going to be in Argentina for the bird hunt, Commerce was asked to add trade-related meetings in Argentina to the agenda as well," Joel Sawyer, the governor's spokesman, told The State.
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