Revealed: DOJ declined to investigate Trump transport chief Elaine Chao after inspector general review claimed she used her office for personal tasks and to promote a shipping firm owned by her father and sisters

 The US Justice Department declined to investigate or prosecute then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao after the inspector general's office referred allegations of potential misuse of office for a review, a report made public on Wednesday said.

The report said the department's inspector general found that Chao used her staff and office for personal tasks and to promote a shipping business owned by Chao's father and sisters, in an apparent violation of federal ethics rules.

Chao had directed staff to research or purchase personal items for her online using her personal credit card or performed other personal errands for her or her father, the report said.

It focused largely on Chao's actions related to her family's shipping business, the Foremost Group, which was founded by her father and whose current chief executive is her sister. 

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The US Justice Department declined to investigate or prosecute then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao (pictured) after the inspector general's office referred allegations of potential misuse of office for a review, a report made public on Wednesday said. The report said the department's inspector general found that Chao used her staff and office for personal tasks and to promote a shipping business owned by Chao's father and sisters, in an apparent violation of federal ethics rules [File photo] 

Chao, the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, stepped down from her job early this year in the last weeks of the Trump administration, citing her disapproval over the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol by Trump's supporters.

Chao has denied wrongdoing. In the report released Wednesday, she did not specifically respond to allegations, instead providing a September 2020 memo that argued promoting her family was an appropriate part of her official duties at the department. The shipping company owned by her family does substantial business with China.

The report confirmed that Chao made extensive plans to include family members in events during a planned, but later canceled, official trip to China in November 2017 that included intended stops at schools that received support from her family's business.

'Above all, let's keep (the Secretary) happy,' one of the department's employees wrote to another staffer regarding Chao's father. 'If Dr. Chao is happy, then we should be flying with a feather in our hat.'  

The report also said Chao has tasked political appointees to contact Homeland Security (DHS) officials on behalf of a foreign student who was the recipient of Chao family philanthropy.

It also found DOT staff 'provided various media and public affairs support' to Chao's father in 2017 and 2018, including assisting in the marketing of his personal biography and editing his Wikipedia page.

Staff were also used to check on repairs of an item at a store for her father and facilitate the booking of a private Amtrak car for Chao's father and guests to travel from New York to Washington for a DOT event.

In December, during the final weeks of the Trump administration, the inspector general's office referred its findings to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia for criminal prosecution.

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Chao, the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (left) of Kentucky, stepped down from her job early this year in the last weeks of the Trump administration, citing her disapproval over the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol by Trump's supporters. The report found no basis to open formal investigations into allegations that Chao steered grant funds to Kentucky, the state represented by her husband [File photo]

The office declined to open a criminal investigation, as did the Justice Department's Public Integrity section.

The inspector general's report added that prosecutors said 'there may be ethical and/or administrative issues to address but there is not a predication to open a criminal investigation.'

The report said the inspector general's 'preliminary review revealed other potential misuses of position that warranted additional review.'

House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Peter DeFazio, a Democrat who sought the probe in 2019, said he was 'disappointed that the Department of Justice declined to further pursue the matters that the IG's office substantiated in its investigation.'

'Public servants, especially those responsible for leading tens of thousands of other public servants, must know that they serve the public and not their family's private commercial interests,' he said. 

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The report found DOT staff 'provided various media and public affairs support' to Chao's father (pictured right, with his late wife) in 2017 and 2018, including assisting in the marketing of his personal biography and editing his Wikipedia page. Staff were also used to check on repairs of an item at a store for her father and facilitate the booking of a private Amtrak car for Chao's father and guests to travel from New York to Washington for a DOT event [File photo]

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said the report and documents obtained by the panel show 'Chao used her official position and taxpayer resources for the benefit of herself and her family.'

The report found no basis to open formal investigations into allegations that Chao steered grant funds to Kentucky, the state represented by her husband.

An analysis by the inspector general found that Kentucky 'did not receive a disproportionate amount of DOT grant funds as a whole.'

The report also found no basis to investigate Chao's holdings in Vulcan Materials, a large stone and asphalt producer that has received federal grants. She previously served as a director at Vulcan.

A spokesman for Chao said the report 'exonerates the secretary from baseless accusations and closes the book on an election-year effort to impugn her.'

Republicans also said the report exonerated Chao. Representative Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House Infrastructure Committee, said Chao 'will not be diminished at all by this investigation prompted by politically motivated news reports.'