WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary received a waiver for previous work in Indiana where he was mayor of South Bend and employed by a radio station, however the scope of that waiver has allegedly not been revealed, according to a watchdog group.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg listed iHeart media as a former employer and terminated that employment relationship in December 2020, according to a Jan. 14, 2021 document signed by Buttigieg.
“He would have been barred from participating in particular matters that involved iHeart media for a year until December 2021 when he was no longer subject to those restrictions but he did have an impartiality decision during that time,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public's Trust. “During the entire time that he was granted an exception to the federal ethics law, there's no way to know what the scope of it was and what matters he may or may not have been able to be participate in that involved his former employer.”
PPT sued the DOT last month in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the federal agency is non-compliant with its Freedom of Information Act requests.
“We've sent them a number of inquiries asking about the status and they have not responded with any definitive actions about when they're going to be able to begin producing documents or if they've started the search,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline. “They have not made a determination of whether they are going to comply with our request. They have not produced any responsive documents and they've not provided an estimated date of completion.”
PPT is seeking waivers, impartiality determinations, records, communications, and any other guidance from Nov. 23, 2020, issued to political appointees of U.S. Pres. Joe Biden’s Administration that exempts appointees like Buttigieg from any of their obligations, according to the March 18 complaint.
On March 15, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to the heads of agencies and departments within the federal government reminding them of the need for transparency because an informed citizenry is vital to the operations of the country.
“The Biden administration promised to be the most transparent administration in history but that message doesn't seem to have trickled down to people in the agencies, such as the Department of Transportation, because they haven't complied with their legal obligations with respect to the Freedom of Information Act request that we made,” Chamberlain added. “That's why we're pursuing this lawsuit.”