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WASHINGTON: The US Department of Justice refused to investigate or prosecute then-Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao after the inspector general’s office referred allegations of possible misuse of the position for review, according to a report made. public on Wednesday (March 3).
The report included allegations that Chao ordered staff to research or purchase personal items for her online using her personal credit card or to run other personal errands for her or her father.
The report focused primarily on Chao’s actions related to his family’s shipping business, the Foremost Group, which was founded by his father and whose current CEO is his sister.
The report confirmed that Chao made extensive plans to include family members in events during a planned, but later canceled, official trip to China in November 2017 that included planned stops at schools that received support from his family’s business.
The report also said that Chao had tasked designated politicians with contacting Homeland Security (DHS) officials on behalf of a foreign student who received the Chao family philanthropy.
The report also found that DOT staff “provided various media and public affairs support” to Chao’s father in 2017 and 2018, including facilitating the booking of a private Amtrak car for Chao’s father and guests to travel. from New York to Washington for a DOT event.
In December, during the final weeks of the Trump administration, the inspector general’s office referred its findings to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for criminal prosecution, which declined to open a criminal investigation, as did the section of Public Integrity of the Department of Justice.
The inspector general’s report added that prosecutors said “there may be ethical and / or administrative issues to address, but there is no predicament to open a criminal investigation.”
The report said that the “preliminary review by the inspector general revealed other possible misuses of the position that warranted further review.”
House Infrastructure and Transportation Speaker Peter DeFazio, a Democrat who sought the investigation in 2019, said he was “disappointed that the Justice Department refused to go forward with matters that the IG office checked in. your investigation”.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform, Carolyn Maloney, said the report and documents obtained by the panel show that “Chao used her official position and taxpayer resources for the benefit of her and her family. “.
The report found no basis to open formal investigations into allegations that she directed grant funds to Kentucky, the state represented by her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. An analysis by the inspector general found that Kentucky “did not receive a disproportionate amount of grant funding from the DOT as a whole.”
The report also found no basis for investigating Chao’s holdings at Vulcan Materials, a large stone and asphalt producer that has received federal grants. She previously served as a director at Vulcan.
A spokesman for Chao said the report “exonerates the secretary of unfounded accusations and closes the book on an election-year effort to challenge her.”
A McConnell spokesperson declined to comment.
Republicans said the report clarified Chao.
Rep. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House Infrastructure Committee, said Chao “will not be diminished at all by this probe driven by politically motivated news reports.”
