Chao agreed to refrain from scheduling media events involving his family without consulting the DOT ethics office.. This was after POLITICO reported about her media appearances with her father, in which she divulged her personal history, her navigation business and her book.
She also asked her team to ask about the status of an application for a work permit for a foreign student studying at a United States university who had received an award from her family’s philanthropic foundation, the inspector general found. And the report shows that Chao additionally used DOT resources and staff for personal tasks, such as checking out repairs in a store for his father and sending Christmas ornaments to his family.
Investigators at the IG office forwarded their findings to the Justice Department’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Integrity Section in December, but both offices refused to open criminal investigations.
Chao could not be reached immediately for comment at the Hudson Institute, where she is a colleague.
“While I commend the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation for conducting this review, I am disappointed that it was not completed and released while Secretary Chao was still in office,” said House Transport President Peter DeFazio (D- Pray.), One of two lawmakers who requested the investigation. “I am even more disappointed that the Department of Justice refused to proceed with the matters that the IG office substantiated in its investigation.”
The inspector general found no evidence to support Chao’s other allegations of misconduct. These include several raised by the POLITICO report that involved the DOT kennel in discretionary grant funds in disarray for Kentucky, the state represented by her husband, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
The Inspector General also analyzed the frequency of meetings Chao and his top officials had with Kentucky officials, but said that “there is no standard by which to judge whether the number of meetings in a home state is excessive to the point of raising ethical issues. “. The IG also found no “irregularities” in the department’s grantmaking grants to Kentucky, although it noted constant criticism of the lack of transparency in the DOT grantmaking process.
The inspector general’s office had already opened a preliminary review of possible misuse of his office before being questioned by the committee. The firm decided that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a formal investigation into grant funding or Chao’s financial interest in Vulcan Materials, but it proceeded with a formal investigation into “possible misuse of position”.