Did the muffins really cost $16 a piece?

Apparently not. A review of costs of workshops, conferences and meetings sponsored by the Department of Justice issued a correction of its September audit in October, 2011. It just didn't give the revised figure for a muffin.

However, the DOJ did spend about $73 million to host conferences during FY 2009, which is $25.5 million (53 percent) more than what was reported spent on conferences in FY 2008. One of them I looked at (actually it was several) was for Native American nations for sex offender training and was held in a plush Palm Springs Resort. Although that's much cheaper than the multi-million dollar one held in Turkey about drugs.

The audit I was reading found that one DOJ event in Los Angeles, California, featured a 2-entrée lunch for 120 attendees that cost $53 per person. In another instance, a DOJ component spent $60,000 on a reception that featured chef-carved roast beef and turkey, a penne pasta station, and platters of Swedish meatballs at a cost of nearly $5 per meatball.

You eat very well at DOJ events.

"AUDIT OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONFERENCE PLANNING AND FOOD AND BEVERAGE COSTS" Rev. October 2011, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, Audit Report 11-43