Maloney hits Don convention baloney
WASHINGTON — President Trump broke the law with multiple portions of his White House-based Republican convention, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and other top members of the House Oversight Committee alleged Thursday in a formal complaint to the federal government’s ethics watchdog.
“Throughout the convention, administration officials repeatedly used their official positions and the White House itself to bolster President Trump’s reelection campaign,” Maloney (inset) and the others wrote to the Office of Special Counsel seeking multiple investigations.
“We are alarmed that President Trump and some senior administration officials are actively undermining compliance with — and respect for — the law,” they said.
Trump’s nomination extravaganza included numerous elements that the lawmakers believe violated the Hatch Act that bars federal workers from doing anything political in their official jobs.
The law does not apply to the vice president or president, but Special Counsel Henry Kerner affirmed just last year that it does apply to everyone else. He made that finding in recommending that Trump fire adviser Kellyanne Conway for repeatedly doing politics on official time.
Trump’s White House extravaganza required unknown numbers of federal workers to put the political shindig together, and used high-ranking officials performing official duties as political props.
Among them, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf held a citizenship ceremony,SecretaryofStateMikePompeo delivered his speech during an official trip to Israel, Trump himself issued pardons, and Vice President Mike Pence spoke from two federal properties.
While Trump and Pence would be exempt, any federal workers who assisted or coordinated with the Trump campaign would be breaking the law.
“We are particularly concerned with the consequences of White House actions on career employees who may have felt pressured to help organize and put on these events, potentially subjecting them to legal jeopardy,” Maloney and the others wrote. “Career employees have faced severe consequences for behavior far less egregious.”
They pointed to an Energy Department worker who was fired for giving an official tour to a congressional candidate and a Defense worker who was suspended a month for including the words “Vote Republican” in a PowerPoint slide.
The White House has argued that all of the events in question were done as legitimate official events, and then merely used in the convention.
Yet the lawmakers point out that Republicans filed complaints against Obama administration Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius when she made unplanned remarks that were deemed political at an official event. She was reprimanded and the Obama campaign was forced to reimburse the government for related expenses.
In Trump’s case, all the events appear to have been planned in advance, including interviews broadcast at the convention done by Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Lynne Patton with four New York City tenants. Three of them later said they were tricked into the interviews.
The committee members gave Kerner until Sept. 17 to render judgment, and pointed to his own words regarding Conway’s violations to explain why violating the Hatch Act matters.
“Its central purpose remains unchanged, to separate the nonpartisan governance of the country from partisan political campaigning,” Kerner said in a committee hearing in June last year. “By maintaining the separation, the Hatch Act protects two groups — federal workers who are protected from the possibility they could be ordered or pressured into taking part in partisan campaigns, and the American people. They are also protected because they know that their tax dollars are being spent on government, and not on election campaigns they may or may not support.”