The Department of Transportation watchdog asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate Elaine Chao late last year for concerns she misused her office when she was President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, but she be rejected, according to a report released Wednesday.
The report explained that the public integrity and criminal divisions of the Justice Department declined in December to process the case for criminal prosecution following the inspector general’s findings that Chao used his staff and office to personal tasks and to promote a maritime business owned by Chao’s father and sisters. in an apparent violation of federal ethical standards. This company does numerous business with China.
“A formal investigation into possible misuses of position was warranted,” Deputy Inspector General Mitch Behm wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
Chao, the wife of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, resigned from his job earlier this year in the last weeks of the Trump administration, citing his disapproval of the 6-year insurgency. January at the Capitol by Trump supporters.
Chao has denied the wrongdoings. In the report released on Wednesday, he did not respond specifically to the allegations, but provided a September 2020 note arguing that the promotion of his family was an appropriate part of his official duties in the department.
“The Asian public welcomes and responds positively to the secretary’s actions that include her father in the activities when appropriate,” the note said.
The watchdog report cited several cases that raised ethical concerns. In one, Chao instructed the department’s appointed politicians to contact the Department of Homeland Security to personally check the status of a work permit application for a student receiving his philanthropic foundation. family.
Chao also made extensive plans for an official trip to China in November 2017 (before canceling it) that would have included stops at places that had received support from his family’s company, the Foremost Group. , based in New York. According to department emails, Chao directed his staff to include his relatives at official events and high-level meetings during the trip.
“Above all, we keep happy (the secretary),” one of the department employees wrote to another staff member about Chao’s father. “If Dr. Chao is happy, we should fly with a feather in his hat.”
The report found that Chao also directed the department’s public affairs staff to assist his father in marketing his personal biography and edited his Wikipedia page, and used the staff to review the repairs of a item in a store for his father.
The IG report said Justice Department officials eventually refused to conduct a criminal review, saying “there may be ethical and / or administrative issues,” but there is no evidence to support possible criminal charges. .
As a result, the inspector general’s office said in the report that it was now closing the investigation “based on the lack of fiscal interest” of the Justice Department.
Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, who requested the investigation, expressed disappointment that the review had not been completed and released while Chao was still in office.
“Public officials, especially those responsible for directing tens of thousands of other public officials, need to know that they serve the public and not the private business interests of their family,” he said.