{"slug":"trump-hatch-act-violations-political-use-government","title":"Systematic Hatch Act Violations: Using Government Resources for Political Campaigns","date":"2017-01-20","lastUpdated":"2020-11-04","description":"The Trump administration was cited by the Office of Special Counsel for systematic violations of the Hatch Act — the federal law prohibiting use of official government positions and resources for partisan campaign activity. The 2020 Republican National Convention was held partly on White House grounds, using government resources for campaign purposes. Senior advisors including Kellyanne Conway were found to have committed repeated violations; the administration ignored the findings.","summary":"The Office of Special Counsel — an independent federal watchdog — found that Trump administration officials committed the most extensive Hatch Act violations in the law's history. The 2020 Republican National Convention used the White House as a backdrop for campaign speeches by administration officials, naturalization ceremonies were used as political props, and senior White House staff used official accounts and positions to campaign. The administration declined to take any corrective action, with Conway reportedly saying she 'didn't care.'","category":"corruption","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://osc.gov/Resources/OSC%20Hatch%20Act%20Report%20on%20Trump%20Administration%20Officials.pdf","title":"OSC Report: Trump Administration Hatch Act Violations","publisher":"Office of Special Counsel"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/us/politics/rnc-convention-hatch-act.html","title":"Republican Convention Uses White House as a Stage in Apparent Hatch Act Violations","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kellyanne-conway-hatch-act/2019/06/13/ba6e9f64-8e11-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html","title":"Office of Special Counsel recommends Kellyanne Conway be fired for Hatch Act violations","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-top-news-politics-white-house-kellyanne-conway-bbaedd9a5c6d4eaba02c3e6b4b2e9cb8","title":"Trump defends Conway despite Hatch Act violations","publisher":"The Associated Press"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Hatch-Act","corruption","campaign-violations","Kellyanne-Conway","first-term","rule-of-law"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2017-01-01","title":"Pattern of Hatch Act violations begins","summary":"From the first months of the administration, senior White House officials use official government platforms and positions to make campaign and partisan statements — conduct that would violate the Hatch Act for career employees but that is treated differently when the president declines to enforce it against political appointees."},{"date":"2019-06-13","title":"OSC recommends Conway be fired","summary":"The Office of Special Counsel, the independent federal watchdog, recommends Conway be removed from her position after finding she committed repeated Hatch Act violations by using her official government platform to attack Democratic candidates for president and make campaign-related statements. Conway's reported response: 'Let me know when the jail sentence starts.'"},{"date":"2019-06-14","title":"Trump refuses to act; Conway says she 'doesn't care'","summary":"Trump says he is not going to fire Conway, who says she 'doesn't care' about the OSC recommendation. The refusal to enforce the law against a senior official is noted by OSC as undermining the entire framework of the Hatch Act."},{"date":"2020-08-24","title":"Republican National Convention on White House grounds","summary":"The RNC's final night is held on the White House South Lawn, with Trump delivering his acceptance speech from government property using government staff and resources. The OSC notes this is an unprecedented use of the White House for direct partisan campaign purposes."},{"date":"2020-08-25","title":"Naturalization ceremony used as RNC prop","summary":"A naturalization ceremony presided over by DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is filmed and broadcast on the first night of the RNC, using immigrants being sworn in as U.S. citizens as political messaging. USCIS career staff later say they were not informed the ceremony would be used for political broadcast."},{"date":"2020-11-04","title":"OSC documents administration-wide violations","summary":"A post-election OSC report documents widespread Hatch Act violations across the Trump administration, calling the pattern 'unprecedented' and noting the administration had made no effort to comply with the law. Career enforcement was essentially suspended for political appointees."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"American democracy and the principle that government resources belong to taxpayers, not party campaigns; federal employees who follow Hatch Act rules at risk of personal sanction while senior officials violated them with impunity","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President of the United States","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Kellyanne Conway","role":"Counselor to the President; found to have violated Hatch Act 60+ times","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Mark Meadows","role":"White House Chief of Staff","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-11-04","summary":"Updated with final OSC documentation of first-term violations."}]}}