On August 24, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, traveled to the war-torn state of North Carolina for the official departmental event for food producers injured by the epidemic. But Perdu’s speech to attendees also featured a campaign pap talk for Trump, which was also there.
At one point, Perdue led the song “Four More Years” and Trump was called the “Forgotten People” champion.
Due to the ambiguity between the official meeting of the Department of Agriculture and the hosting of Trump’s rally, Perdue filed a complaint with the Special Adviser to the Federal Office Fees by a non-partisan citizen for accountability and ethics in Washington, D.C. , A 1939 law that prohibits most federal officials from using their government posts to engage in a variety of political activities.
In a stinging reprimand to Perdue on October 30, 2001, the OSC ruled that it had violated the Hatch Act and ordered it to reimburse taxpayers for travel and other costs associated with the incident.
But the paradox is rarely a different example of Trump’s top officials mixing their work with political activities that critics and observer groups say is a worrying violation of laws and regulations designed to prevent corruption and free the U.S. state machinery from political interference.
Reports show that Trump’s 14 senior political appointments have been cited by the OSC for violations of the Hatch Act, including some recurring offenders. Kelly Conway, a former political adviser to Trump, was accused of violating about two dozen Hatch Acts, according to the crew, which led to the OSC recommending his dismissal in 2019, a message Trump ignored.
“Trump is openly rejecting the Hatch Act and did not fire Conway when the OSC recommended it,” said Donald Sharma, deputy director of the crew in Washington, which has made a number of complaints. “This administration has violated a larger scope, scale, and frequency than any administration in recent memory.”
By comparison, only two senior Obama administration officials were cited by the OSC for violating the Hatch Act.
Several Trump officials, including Housing Secretary Ben Carson, and trade adviser Peter Navarro, were cited in the crew’s complaint to the OSC this year for violating the act in their authors and public comments.
Trump wrote an op-ed to cars attacking the “Obama-Biden Dystopian Vision of Building Low-Income Buildings Next to Your Suburban Building” running in the Warsall Street Journal, and it was distributed to housing department employees via his email.
Navarro is accused of violating the act for two interviews with Fox News, where in his capacity as Trump’s top trade adviser, he attacked Biden’s trade record and claimed without evidence that China backed him, “because They know it can be bought. “
The crew also filed a complaint against Attorney General William Barrow, alleging that he violated the Hatch Act by conducting interviews running in the Chicago Tribune and broadcast as a podcast. “I don’t want to get into politics,” Bair acknowledged, but warned that if “Trump loses this election,” we will find ourselves “irresistibly committed to the socialist path.”
Separately, the two main House Democrats recently launched an investigation into possible Hatch Act violations by Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, involving speeches for Rs. Servic, religious and political groups in the war-torn states of Florida, Texas and Wisconsin.
On October 3, Pompeo spoke remotely with the hardline Florida Family Policy Council, and last month he traveled to Texas to address the Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Elliott Angle, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Joachim Castro, chairman of a key subcommittee, wrote a letter to two senior state officials asking for documents about Pompeo’s recent negotiations. “His official duties as chief diplomat of the United States.”
The letter noted that his travels and speeches “appear to be increasing in frequency as elections approach on November 3” and were “possibly ibly illegal.”
In a statement, Castro said that an investigation into Pochino’s use of taxpayer resources for political activity in violation of the Hatch Act has just begun, and I expect [it] Will continue in the next Congress. Hominees will also not meet with Pope Francis Secretary Pompeo because he has politicized our foreign policy as a partisan issue, ”the Vatican said earlier this month, referring to Pope’s pope’s snub. Ends.
Moreover, after Trump hit Pompeo for not disclosing Hillary Clinton’s emails, Pompeo quickly told Fox News on October 9 that he had access to Clinton’s emails and intended to release her soon. “I definitely think there will be more to see before the election.”
To please Pompeo, Trump encouraged Austin Evers, executive director of the Woods Group American Oversight, to say: “If Mike Pompeo is spinning state department gears to influence the election, he and everyone who obeys his orders are breaking. Hatch Act. Evers added: “Pompeo has taken out the non-political, non-political values at the center of the political service.”
It is not clear whether Pompeo is under investigation by the OSC.
Other senior officials, including Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, are facing complaints from crews about merging their official posts into the Trump campaign.
The crew’s complaint cited Wolf’s role in a TV-style natural-making ceremony with Trump at the White House during the Republican National Convention that is “designed to support President Trump’s re-election campaign.”
The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, also filed a crew complaint for Hatch Act violations for two interviews with Fox News on July 6, identifying him as chief of staff and advocating for Trump’s re-election and criticizing Biden. Meadows has ridiculed the Hatch Act, calling it “hopla” and claiming “no one outside the beltway really cares.”
