Chicago cops blocked city inspectors from entering a curious “Gift Room” filled with designer bags, Hugo Boss cufflinks, a personalized Mont Blanc pen and other ritzy goodies that were accepted by Mayor Brandon Johnson, according to a bombshell report.
The trove of pricey giveaways are part of an “unwritten arrangement” that dates back 35 years, in which mayors can just write down gifts they received in a logbook and store some of them on the fifth floor of City Hall instead of reporting them to the Board of Ethics, according to the Office of Inspector General.
But the new report issued Wednesday outlines the numerous times investigators were rebuffed from learning more about the 236 gifts given to Johnson “on behalf of the city” since he took office.
An investigator initially posed as a member of the public to request the gift log while visiting City Hall last year, but was turned down and forced to formally make a request.
The covert official then filed the paperwork, but was ignored. Eventually, the mayor’s office handed over the information after the inspector general made the official request for all gifts given between Feb. 2022 when Lori Lightfoot was in office and March 20, 2024.
The log had incomplete information, but still listed hundreds of luxury presents, including the cuff links, Mont Blanc pen, bags and purses from Gucci, Kate Spade, and Givenchy and Carrucci burgundy shoes that are a men’s size 14.
When OIG officials requested access to check out the room, they were met by Chicago cops who told them to wait in the elevator lobby, according to the report.
After wrangling between OIG and the mayor’s office, inspectors were told they would not get inside the room, the report states.
“Following that denial, OIG engaged in further conversations with the Department of Law (DOL) regarding access to the gift room,” the report states. “Ultimately, DOL – apparently representing the Mayor in opposition to OIG – communicated that OIG would not be granted access to the Gift Room.”
Other items appeared to be located in the mayor’s office, as well as other parts of City Hall, the report claims.
The mayor’s office told the inspector general in a memo last week ahead of the report being issued that officials could visit the gift room “through a properly scheduled appointment at the earliest practicable time.”
The mealy-mouth offer didn’t stop Inspector General Deborah Witzburg from slamming city leadership.
“When gifts are changing hands—perhaps literally—in a windowless room in City Hall, there is no opportunity for oversight and public scrutiny of the propriety of such gifts, the identities and intentions of the gift-givers, or what it means for gifts like whiskey, jewelry, handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes to be accepted “on behalf of the City,” the inspector general office wrote in its report.
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