Office of Legal Inspector Reveals Post Abuse by Former Transport Secretary Elaine Chao

The report says that in December, the ethics office of the Department of Justice refused to take over the matter for prosecution, although the Transport Department inspector general concluded that Ms. Chao had used the staff and office for personal use and for advertised the transportation company owned by her father and sisters. This company does extensive business with China.

“It was appropriate to open a formal investigation into abuse of office,” Deputy Inspector General Mitch Behm said in a letter to lawmakers.
Mrs. Chao, the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, resigned earlier this year as President Trump’s term drew to a close, citing disagreements over the events that accompanied the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol. .
Ms. Chao insists she has not committed any offenses. She did not give a specific response to the report published Wednesday, but submitted a September 2020 statement arguing that promoting her family was an acceptable part of her official duties in the department.

“The Asian side reacts positively to the actions of a secretary, in activities involving her father if appropriate,” her statement said. The report of an independent group monitoring government violations cited several cases that raised ethical questions. In one of them, Ms. Chao had instructed political appointees in the department to contact the Department of Homeland Security to personally check the employment status of a student who had come on a scholarship from her family foundation.

Ms. Chao had also made numerous plans for an official trip to China in November 2017, before canceling the trip. The plans included stops in places that were backed by her family business, the New York-based Foremost Group. According to the department emails, Ms. Chao had instructed staff to involve her relatives in official activities and high-level meetings abroad.

“Above all, we must please the secretary,” an employee wrote to a colleague about Ms. Chao’s father. “If Dr. “Chao is pleased, we will have things in order.” The report concludes that Ms. Chao had instructed the public relations office in the Department of Transportation to help her father advertise his biographical book and edit the Wikipedia portal page that talked about him. She had also sent a department employee to repair an item of her father.

The inspector’s office report stated that Justice Department officials had refused to open a criminal investigation, saying “these could be ethical and / or administrative issues” but that there was no evidence to support the opening of a criminal investigation. As a result, the inspector general’s office said in the report that it was closing its investigation “because there is no interest from prosecutors” of the Justice Department.

Democrat lawmaker Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transport Committee, who had called for the investigation to take place, expressed disappointment that no investigation was conducted during Ms. Chao’s tenure. “Public sector employees, especially those who are in charge of institutions with tens of thousands of government employees, should know that they work for the public and not for the interests of the family business,” he said./VOA

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