A new report shows that the Transportation Department’s watchdog wanted Elaine Chao to be criminally investigated late last year when she was transportation secretary, but was rebuffed. The report by the department’s inspector general says the Justice Department’s criminal and public integrity divisions declined in December to take up the case for criminal prosecution. This followed the inspector general’s findings that Chao used her staff and office for personal tasks and to promote her family’s shipping business. Chao stepped down early this year, citing her disapproval over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
