Chicago’s Inspector Basic, Deborah Witzburg, has launched a damning report detailing a covert stash of luxurious presents, together with jewellery, whiskey, and high-end equipment, secretly hoarded by Mayor Brandon Johnson in a Metropolis Corridor “Reward Room.”
Mayor Johnson and his workplace have systematically blocked investigators from accessing this trove, blatantly disregarding metropolis legal guidelines designed to keep up moral governance.
Based on the report, this secretive cache was uncovered following an undercover operation by the Workplace of the Inspector Basic (OIG) final June.
The investigators, who have been initially denied entry to the mayoral present log, have been pressured to resort to a Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) request, which the Mayor’s workplace additionally stonewalled.
It was solely via an official doc request that the Mayor’s Workplace grudgingly disclosed the existence of the “Reward Room.”
Based on the report reviewed by The Gateway Pundit:
On July 9, 2024, OIG—once more in an undercover capability as a member of the general public—filed a FOIA request with the Mayor’s Workplace by which OIG requested a log, record, or data adequate to point out all disclosures filed by or on behalf of Mayor Johnson or former Mayor Lori Lightfoot from February 1, 2022 to March 31, 2024 relating to receipt or reimbursement of: journey bills for conferences associated to a public or governmental academic goal; presents given to or accepted on behalf of the Metropolis; or internet hosting, together with journey and bills, leisure, meals or refreshments furnished in reference to conferences, appearances or public occasions or ceremonies associated to official Metropolis enterprise.
OIG additionally issued the same request to the Metropolis Comptroller for disclosures made by the Mayor’s Workplace relating to presents to be added to the Metropolis stock; the Comptroller knowledgeable OIG that it held no responsive data.
The Mayor’s Workplace didn’t well timed reply to OIG’s FOIA request which, pursuant to relevant regulation, constitutes a denial of the request. On August 14, 2024—over a month after submitting the FOIA request–OIG obtained a response from the Mayor’s Workplace within the type of a spreadsheet that detailed presents accepted on behalf of the Metropolis.
The log included, for some however not all presents: the date obtained, a short description, the place the presents have been saved, and details about the supply of the present. Notably, a response to the FOIA request OIG submitted as a member of the general public got here solely after OIG additionally issued a compelled doc request to the Mayor’s Workplace searching for the identical info.
OIG obtained in response to its doc request data that matched the data it obtained in response to its undercover FOIA. Notably, neither log obtained by OIG lists any reimbursed travel-related bills.
Of the 380 logged presents, many are listed with a location designation of “Reward Room.” These presents reportedly being saved within the Mayor’s “Reward Room” embrace:
- “Hugo Boss cuff hyperlinks” from June 12, 2023
- “Customized Mont Blanc pen” from June 12, 2023
- “2023 U.S. Nationwide Soccer Staff Jersey” from June 16, 2023
- “Airpods, tote bag, notepad” from October 3, 2023
- “Gucci Tote bag and crossbody bag” from March 18, 2024
- “Givenchy Bag, Kate Spade Crimson Purse, Carrucci Dimension 14 Burgandy Males’s Footwear” from March 19, 2024
The concealment doesn’t cease at denying bodily entry. The Mayor’s Workplace, suggested by the Metropolis’s Division of Legislation (DOL), endured in obstructing the OIG from performing an unannounced inspection of the Reward Room.
This motion stands in stark violation of the Municipal Code of Chicago, which mandates full cooperation with OIG inquiries.
Block Club Chicago reported:
The report from the Chicago Workplace of Inspector Basic, printed Wednesday morning, takes purpose at an “unwritten association” relationship again to 1989 permitting metropolis mayors to skip reporting presents to the Board of Ethics and as a substitute merely jot them in a public logbook on the fifth flooring of Metropolis Corridor.
However in June a metropolis inspector undercover as a member of the general public was denied the present log and advised to file a public data request, which was not fulfilled for over a month, finally coming again as an incomplete spreadsheet “for some however not all presents.” The data request was accomplished solely after the inspector basic’s workplace requested for a similar info, in accordance with the report.
[…]
In November, metropolis inspectors went as much as the fifth flooring of Metropolis Corridor once more and requested to go to the present room, however have been met by Chicago law enforcement officials and advised to attend within the elevator foyer whereas “a number of senior members of the Mayor’s Workplace” spoke with the inspector basic’s workplace concerning the request, in accordance with the report. The inspectors have been finally denied entry that day and advised they needed to make an appointment.
Finally, the Division of Legislation communicated that the Inspector Basic’s workplace wouldn’t be granted entry to the present room, in accordance with the report.
You possibly can learn the report beneath:
