New emails uncovered by American Oversight show that HUD Secretary Ben Carson and wife were actively involved in selection and purchase of a $31,000 dining set — contradicting previous claims by Carson and HUD officials that he had not been aware of the purchase until after the fact.

American Oversight sued HUD on February 27, 2018, to force the release of any records relating to the secretary’s office renovation.

Statement from Austin Evers, Executive Director of American Oversight:

“Secretary Carson famously argued that public housing should be uncomfortable to discourage people from staying for long periods of time, but apparently his concern for cost-cutting ends at the door to his own office. While it’s encouraging to see that HUD’s career ethics officials tried to stand up to the extravagant requests from Secretary Carson and his wife, it’s still deeply troubling each time we learn about secretary involving his family in his taxpayer-funded job.”

This is not the first time that we have obtained documents from HUD showing Secretary Carson’s family taking an active role in agency business. Earlier this year, we found that Ben Carson Jr. had been effectively put in charge of coordinating an official HUD tour of Baltimore – and that he used the opportunity to connect his business contacts with agency officials. Read the Ben Carson Jr. emails.

We also have active litigation against HUD seeking the release of emails and other communications with Lynne Patton, the former Trump family employee who now serves as the administrator of the HUD region that oversees New York and New Jersey.