Records Reveal Chicago Mayor's 'Gift Room' Was Constructed After Investigators Turned Away

Records reveal Chicago mayor's 'gift room' was constructed after investigators turned away

Chicago's Office of Inspector General reveals Mayor Brandon Johnson's "gift room" was built only after investigators were blocked from inspecting city property.

Mayor Brandon Johnson Blocked Attempts to Search for Gifts He Accepted Without Reporting Them as Required: Inspector General – WTTW (Chicago)

“I think there are much more important issues in the City of Chicago that the (Office of the Inspector General) and the press could be focused on,” mayoral spokesperson Cassio Mendoza said. “I would just note that the ‘designer handbags’ language in her release is disingenuous at best and racist at worst, given that the bag is an obvious, cheap knock off. As you know, the vast majority of the items in the gift room are T-shirts and hats... but t…

City Hall gift room highlights Mayor Johnson’s ‘hostility to oversight,’ inspector general says

Mayor Brandon Johnson made a show of videotaping the City Hall gift room after being accused of accepting valuable gifts, failing to report them and denying the city’s inspector general access to the room where those items were stored. But there was a problem. The gift room showcased in the mayor’s 21-second video was not constructed until February, the month after Inspector General Deborah Witzburg tried to conduct an unannounced inspection — o…

Records reveal Chicago mayor's 'gift room' was constructed after investigators turned away – Democratic Accent

New records obtained by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed on Tuesday the “gift room” showcased by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office in February was constructed only after investigators were blocked from inspecting gifts already received, raising fresh questions about where the city property — including cufflinks, designer handbags and men’s shoes — was being stored prior to the watchdog’s query. OIG investigators were twice denie…