Case of the Missing Desk: Rep launches Capitol-wide search for lost furniture

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., center, leaves Trump Tower, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

It wasn’t quite a tale from Agatha Christie. But Capitol Hill plunged into a deep mystery Thursday over “The Case of the Missing Desk.”

The victim? South Carolina Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney.

Mulvaney discovered his desk was missing Wednesday when he moved into his new office, shifting floors in the Rayburn House Office Building. Such moves are standard and orchestrated by The Architect of the Capitol; the AOC typically tells lawmakers to pack up everything in their offices, except the desk.

Only Mulvaney’s desk wasn’t moved to the new space. Asked by Fox News what was in it, he answered: “Oh, little things … Like my passport.”

In addition, Mulvaney said his desk contained a letter from his dad when he first won election to Congress, as well as pictures of his kids and business cards.

Mulvaney was quick to point the finger.

“I suspect it was [Rep. Trey] Gowdy,” he speculated.

This prompted a Capitol Hill APB as congressional gumshoes fanned out to find the desk.

Natalee Binkholder, a top aide for Mulvaney, sent around the following message to other congressional offices in search of the disappearing desk:

“During our office move, the movers made a mistake and did not move my boss’s desk with us. It is currently missing, and was FILLED with his personal papers, including his passport. If a desk would show up in your member office and be full of Mulvaney papers, please let me know ASAP. We would like to find his stuff as much or more as the desk. I hope it’s all not lost for good.”

Within a half-hour or so, desk detectives managed to get a vector on Mulvaney’s furniture.

“Thanks to everyone – the power of the listserve located my boss’s desk!! It’s a holiday miracle!” proclaimed Binkholder in a mass email to House offices.

The location of the desk is unclear, though it apparently has been found.

Mulvaney, though, has not yet cleared Gowdy as a potential suspect.

Gowdy himself snarked back, in a statement to Fox News:

"Dr. Freud wrote extensively about projection. My guess is Mick will blame House leadership (as he always does) or his lack of sleep having spent the weekend reading all books written by Mr. Trump in anticipation of his (short) OMB interview.”