The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report Wednesday (March 3) stating that late last year, it had asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation against then-Secretary Elaine Chao after it was determined that she had abused her position to advance the cause of a shipping company owned by her father, but was denied.
According to Fox, the newspaper noted that the Justice Department’s Criminal and Public Integrity Division declined to take up the case in December 2020, after the DOT Office of Inspector General found that Chao had improperly used department personnel and offices to conduct personal business and promote the Foremost Group, a shipping company run by her father, Chao Seok Sung, and her sisters, which has extensive business ties to China. extensive business dealings with China.
In a letter to members of Congress, Deputy Inspector General Mitch Behm (D-N.Y.) wrote: “It is necessary for authorities to conduct a formal investigation into potential job abuses.”
The watchdog report cited several instances that raised ethical concerns. In one instance, Chao directed the department’s political appointees to contact the Department of Homeland Security to check the status of a work permit application for a student who was funded by her Family‘s charitable foundation.
Chao also made extensive plans for an official visit to China in November 2017, and her intended stops included areas that had been funded by the FCMG. In addition, she asked her ministry to arrange for her relatives to participate in her meetings with senior Communist Party officials, according to department emails. The trip to China was eventually canceled, however.
Reports indicate that in emails contacted by Transportation Ministry employees, one had written about Zhao Xiaolan’s father, “The most important thing is to make (the minister) happy. As long as (Cho’s father) Dr. Cho (Seok-sung) is happy, we can be proud of it.”
The report also revealed that Cho had instructed department staff to help market her father’s biography and edit his Wikipedia page, and used staff to check the repair of an item for her father at a store.
And Chao has so far denied wrongdoing.
In a report released Wednesday, Cho did not respond specifically to the allegations against her, but instead provided a September 2020 memo arguing that promoting her family (career) was appropriate conduct for her official duties at the department. That memo reads, “Asian audiences welcomed, and responded positively to, Secretary (Chao Xiaolan’s) action to include her father in events when appropriate.”
DOJ officials reportedly ultimately declined to pursue a criminal review, stating that Chao “may have ethical and/or administrative issues” but that there was no evidence to support possible criminal charges. The inspector general’s office said it is now preparing to close the investigation into Zhao Xiaolan “based on the Department of Justice’s lack of interest in prosecuting.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Calif.), who requested the investigation be carried out, said he was disappointed that the investigation report was not completed and released during Secretary Chao’s tenure.
DeFazio said, “Public servants, especially those responsible for leading tens of thousands of public servants, must know they are serving the public, not their family’s private business interests.”
Chao, who is the wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), resigned as transportation secretary in January, citing the break-in at the Capitol by “pro-Trump supporters.
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