The Department of Transportation’s watchdog asked the Justice Department late last year to prosecute Elaine Chao over concerns she abused her office when she was transportation secretary under President Donald Trump, but was turned down, according to a report released Wednesday is.
The report said that in December, the Department of Justice’s criminal and public integrity divisions refused to address the case for criminal prosecution, following the Inspector General’s findings that Chao was using her staff and office for personal tasks and to to promote a shipping business owned by Chao’s father and sisters in an apparent violation of federal ethical rules. The company does extensive business with China.
“A formal investigation into possible abuse of position was warranted,” Deputy Inspector General Mitch Behm wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
Chao, the wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, resigned from her post in the Trump administration early in recent weeks, saying she was disapproved of the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol by Trump’s supporters.
Chao denied that he had violated.
In the report released Wednesday, she did not specifically respond to the allegations, but a September 2020 memo claiming that promoting her family was an appropriate part of her official duties at the department.
“Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to the actions of the secretary who include her father in activities, where applicable,” the memorandum said.
The watchdog report cited several cases that raise ethical concerns. In one, Chao instructed political appointments in the department to liaise with the Department of Homeland Security to personally check the status of a work permit application for a student who was a recipient of the philanthropic establishment of her family.
Chao also outlined extensive plans for an official trip to China in November 2017 – before she canceled it – which would include stops at locations that received support from her family’s business, the New York-based Foremost Group. According to emails from the department, Chao instructed her staff to include her family members in high-level official events and meetings during the trip.
“Above all, let’s keep the secretary happy,” one of the department’s employees wrote to another employee about Chao’s father. ‘As Dr. Chao is happy, we have to fly with a feather in our hat. ‘
The report found that Chao also instructed the staff of the Department of Public Affairs to assist her father in marketing his personal biography and to edit his Wikipedia page, and used staff to look at repairs to ‘ an article in a store for her father.
The IG report states that Justice Department officials ultimately did not want to take a criminal review, saying that there could be “ethical and / or administrative issues”, but no evidence to support possible criminal charges.
As a result, the Office of the Inspector General said in the report that it was now closing its investigation “due to the lack of interest of the prosecutor” of the Department of Justice.
Rep. 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.
“Civil servants, especially those responsible for guiding tens of thousands of other civil servants, need to know that they are serving the public and not their family’s private commercial interests,” he said.