Citing a “use of public office for private gain,” government watchdogs recommended that the Department of Justice investigate Elaine Chao, President Trump’s transportation secretary. But Chao, who’s married to Senator Mitch McConnell and related to shipping industry executives with extensive ties to China, was never probed by Trump’s DOJ.
In 2020, investigators at the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation gave the DOJ a report, shared with Congress on Tuesday, outlining “potential misuses of position that warranted additional review.” The problematic behavior centered around favors done for Chao’s family, which owns and operates a successful shipping company called Foremost Group. The New York Times reports:
The investigators also found that she repeatedly asked agency staff members to help do chores for her father, including editing his Wikipedia page and promoting his Chinese-language biography. They said she directed two staff members from her office to send a copy of Mr. Chao’s book “to a well-known C.E.O. of a major U.S. corporation” to ask if he would write a foreword for it.
In another ethically dubious episode, Chao wanted her father James and her sister Angela, now the CEO of the family’s company, to travel with her to China for an official visit in 2017. The Chaos were to attend high-level meetings between senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats. But the plan raised eyebrows at the State Department. The Wall Street Journal explains:
“U.S. Embassy officials wrote to DOT officials in Washington: “Is this correct? We want to ensure that this wasn’t a miscommunication. If this is the case, can you please provide us with a complete list of the meetings that they would attend? We would need to vet this with the State Department.”
After scrutiny, the trip to China was cancelled.
In September 2020, Chao defended her actions in a memo to investigators:
“Anyone familiar with Asian culture knows it is a core value in Asian communities to express honor and filial respect toward one’s parents. Asian audiences welcome and respond positively to actions by the secretary that include her father in activities when appropriate.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D, N.Y.), chairwoman of the the House Oversight committee, criticized Chao:
“The DOT Inspector General’s report, in addition to documents we obtained, demonstrate that Secretary Chao used her official position and taxpayer resources for the benefit of herself and her family. Secretary Chao’s flagrant abuse of her office provides further evidence that additional ethics and transparency reforms are needed.”
But Chao and her allies claim the investigation is meritless. A spokesperson for Chao said, “This report exonerates the Secretary from baseless accusations and closes the book on an election-year effort to impugn her history-making career as the first Asian American woman appointed to a President’s Cabinet.”
Chao first served as Secretary of Transportation in the George W. Bush administration. She was an original member of President Trump’s cabinet, but resigned on January 7th, 2021, the day after the Capitol Insurrection.
