Donald Trump allowed at least 13 senior members of his presidential administration to flout the law that prohibits the mixing of campaigning with official government business, according to a new report from the office of Special Counsel Henry Kerner.
The Washington Post explains:
A report from the office of Special Counsel Henry Kerner describes a “willful disregard for the law” known as the Hatch Act that was “especially pernicious,” given that many officials abused their government roles days before the November election. President Donald Trump — whose job it was to discipline his political appointees — allowed them to illegally promote his reelection on the job despite warnings to some from ethics officials, the report says.
“This failure to impose discipline created the conditions for what appeared to be a taxpayer-funded campaign apparatus within the upper echelons of the executive branch,” investigators wrote in the scathing 60-page report.
POLITICO adds:
The bulk of the violations, according to investigators, came as the result of comments pertaining to the election of then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden while the officials were giving interviews in their capacity as government officials.
Other violations revolved around the use of The White House during the final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway was a prolific offender of the Hatch Act. The OSC report says she engaged in “repeated, flagrant violations.”
Others in violation of the law include: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf; Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; White House director of strategic communications Alyssah Farah; U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman; senior adviser Jared Kushner; press secretary Kayleigh McEnany; White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; senior adviser Stephen Miller; deputy White House press secretary Brian Morgenstern; national security adviser Robert O’Brien; and chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.
The OSC report notes that the Hatch Act is only enforceable by the sitting president, and therefore toothless. Indeed, the report indicates that many Trump officials mocked the law:
Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff, said during an interview that “nobody outside of the Beltway really cares” about whether senior administration officials violated the Hatch Act and called such allegations “a lot of hoopla.” Ms. Conway, when asked about OSC’s first report concluding that she had violated the Hatch Act, responded by saying “blah, blah, blah,” and “let me know when the jail sentence starts.” And in 2020 it was reported that White House staffers “privately scoff at the Hatch Act and say they take pride in violating its regulations.”
More from the report:
The administration’s defiance of the Hatch Act is perhaps best exemplified by its failure to take any apparent action against employees in even the most clear-cut cases. OSC’s second report documenting violations by Ms. Conway was the first to ever recommend that the president remove a presidential appointee from federal employment. Despite that recommendation, President Trump not only refused to act but publicly defended Ms. Conway, reiterating the baseless claim that taking action against her for statements made in her official capacity would “take away her right of free speech.” OSC is similarly unaware of any efforts by the Trump administration to discipline any employees for the violations that OSC brought to its attention. The Trump White House could not have sent a clearer message that there would be no consequences for senior administration officials violating the Hatch Act.