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Thursday, March 4th, 2021

Inspector General’s Report Cites Elaine Chao for Misuse of Office

Author:     Eric Lipton and Michael Forsythe
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     3 March 2021
 Link: Inspector General’s Report Cites Elaine Chao for Misuse of Office
Stephan:   Have you noticed that Biden has been in office less than two months and there hasn't been a single scandal? In contrast, the Trump administration even out of office is still producing them. There are at least four senior Trump officials, in addition to Trump himself, under active criminal investigation. Elaine Chao, like her husband Mitch McConnell, has a long history as a grifter, someone who uses high-ranking public office principally to enrich themselves, their family and friends. These people have little interest in fostering social and individual wellbeing; they don't see the point in holding office to help ordinary people.
Elaine Chao testifying before a House subcommittee last year. Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department’s inspector general asked the Justice Department in December to consider a criminal investigation into what it said was Elaine Chao’s misuse of her office as transportation secretary in the Trump administration to help promote her family’s shipping business, which is run by her sister and has extensive business ties with China.

In a report made public on Wednesday, the inspector general said the Justice Department’s criminal and public integrity divisions both declined to take up the matter in the closing weeks of the Trump administration, even after the inspector general found repeated examples of Ms. Chao using her staff and her office to help benefit her family and their business operations and revealed that staff members at the agency had raised ethics concerns.

“A formal investigation into potential misuses of position was warranted,” Mitch Behm, the department’s deputy inspector general, said on Tuesday in a letter to House lawmakers, accompanying a 44-page report detailing the investigation and the findings of wrongdoing.

Ms. […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 4:36 pm

    As always, Stephan, your comment on this article is right on the topic and substance of it.