The inspector general found Nicole Avant was frequently away from the embassy often traveling to and from her home in Los Angeles. When she was in the Bahamas, she often worked from her office at the residence rather than working at the embassy. Nicole Avant “was absent from [her] post for 276 days during a 670-day period from November 19, 2009, to September 19, 2011—an average of 12 days per month. The 276 days include...102 personal leave days. [She] also traveled to the United States for 77 work days on what she identified as business, with 23 days on what appear to have been official travel orders.” The report found she “had not had frequent policy-level interaction with the [State] Department or other Washington agencies... She relied unduly on her [deputy chief of mission] to attend to day-to-day contacts with the [State] Department.”
At the same time, thanks to Avant’s circle of contacts and her friendship with the Obamas—she says she talks to Michelle almost every day and thinks of her “more like a sister”—she and Sarandos have become key fundraisers and social connectors for the anti-Trump resistance class. Avant has co-hosted several major events for the Joe Biden campaign, including Kamala Harris’s first as a candidate for vice president. On the local level, she has chaired such L.A. organizations as A Sense of Home, which combats homelessness by assisting youths who are aging out of foster care. Sarandos is taking the lead on the board of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, scheduled to open in April.