Follow up: DOT used its resources to promote “Mayor Pete” documentary to agency employees
- February 2, 2023
This post is a follow-up to one I wrote in April 2022. Protect the Public’s Trust, an ethics watchdog, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Transportation. The lawsuit was in response to the department’s failure to release records involving the movie “Mayor Pete.” PPT requested records of the movie, its production, and its release.
That lawsuit resulted in obtaining records. The records show that, while he did not appear to promote the film “Mayor Pete,” it seems like the agency did use its resources to promote the film to DOT employees. Buttigieg claimed to have no financial interest in the movie that documented his failed presidential run, the film certainly could work to his benefit in any future run for office.
I’ll end with a statement from Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust.
“It is becoming ever more clear why so many crises involving the DOT, from the supply chain to air travel chaos, have surfaced during Secretary Buttigieg’s tenure,” explained Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust. “Expending taxpayer resources to repeatedly publicize ‘Mayor Pete’ to DOT employees is just further evidence of the lack of attention to the day-to-day work for the American public under his leadership. Such conduct further erodes the public’s ongoing loss of trust that the government is working in their interests.”