Politico is reporting Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has been using her office to bolster projects benefiting her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. According to the report, Secretary Chao designated a “special liaison” to handle grant applications “and other priorities” for McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, resulting in at least $78 million in federal funds approved for local projects. McConnell is running for re-election next year in Kentucky.

Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics and a senior adviser at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tweeted, “This is the sort of thing that should lead to the impeachment of a corrupt official—that is, if her corrupt husband weren’t in a position to block that impeachment. We are now a full-fledged banana republic. We have nothing to teach the rest of the world except what not to be.”