Kelly Anne Conjob in trouble again.
The former head of a U.S. government ethics watchdog said on Wednesday he had filed a complaint claiming senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway violated a law barring executive branch employees from engaging in political activity when she spoke on television against a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Conway, in an interview on Fox News Channel on Monday, railed against Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate in the Dec. 12 special election for an Alabama seat in the U.S. Senate.
"Doug Jones in Alabama? Folks, don't be fooled. He'll be a vote against tax cuts," Conway said. Jones's Republican rival, Roy Moore, has been accused of pursuing teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
Walter Shaub, who stepped down as director of the Office of Government Ethics in July, said in a Twitter post: "I have filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations."
The 1939 Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority to influence an election.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conway came under criticism from the ethics office in February when she publicly endorsed fashion products sold by President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump.
Shaub, then head of the ethics office, wrote a letter to the White House in March voicing concern about the White House decision not to discipline Conway.
Shaub, who had clashed with the Trump administration over its business entanglements, has joined the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonpartisan group advocating for democratic reform.
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Kelly Anne "Alternative Facts" Conway once again has done something that no federal employee isn't suppose to do. When will this White House get rid of the propaganda chief they have hired?
that no federal employee is supposed to do.
I'm not surprised, it's just one more ethics violation coming from the corrupt Trump white house. This administration has no ethics or morals, they are pure partisan politics.
NO administration official or, federal employee is suppose to "advertise" for or, against anyone running for office or, a company's products, it is against the law. This is twice now that she has done this.
Everybody does it!
Since when? Name one other federal employee that has violated that ethics clause.
Oh....the Clinton Crime Family, for one example. Do your research and will come up with several occurrences .
If there were any violations of the Hatch Act during the Obama administration, we'd still be hearing about it from the knuckle dragging society instead of birth certificates, secret Muslim, 57 states, Benghazi, etc, etc. You made the allegation, you provide the details. They did it too is a childish defense without proof. Post it.
Nope, no accounts of any Clinton pushing their own brand of products and no examples of white house employees violating the Hatch act. There were two during the 8 years Obama was President, but we've had 3 violations in just the first 10 months of the Trump administration. Yes, under Bill Clinton the Hatch Act was amended in 1993 to allow certain types of political activity like working with party campaigns, but it never opened it up for employees to specifically weigh in using the white house to back party candidates or to fund raise for them.
In 2006, the Utah Democratic Party challenged the candidacy of Ogden City Police Chief Jon Greiner for State Senate. The challenge was upheld by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel because the year prior the Ogden City Police Department received a federal grant to help pay for bulletproof vests. Jon Greiner appealed the decision, remained on the ballot, won the election and served one term (2006-2010) as Utah State Senator while the results of the appeal were unknown.
In January 2007, the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced the results of investigations into whether certain events during the election campaigns of 2004 and 2006 violated the Hatch Act.[26]
It found no violation when Kennedy Space Center officials allowed Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign to use a NASA facility for a 2004 campaign event, because no government employees worked at the facility in question. It found streaming the event to NASA employees and contractors violated the Hatch Act.
It reviewed a 2006 speech by NASA Administrator Dr. Michael D. Griffin in which he appeared to endorse Representative Tom DeLay for re-election. It determined that he "should have exercised better judgment" and took no further action.
In June 2007, the OSC found that Bush administraion Lurita Alexis Doan, Administrator of the General Services Administration, violated the Hatch Act when she took part in a video conference with Karl Rove and other White House officials, and sent letters asking how to help Republican politicians get elected.
In November 2007, Terre Haute, Indiana, mayor, Kevin Burke, challenged the candidacy of mayor-elect Duke Bennett under provisions of the Act. In November 2008, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Bennett, who took office after a Vigo County, Indiana, judge ruled that he was eligible to serve, was ineligible under the terms of the Act. The ruling was nonbinding, pending Bennett's appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.
On May 6, 2008, FBI agents raided OSC offices and the home office of its director, Scott Bloch. The raids related to an investigation into allegations that Bloch's office had attempted to obstruct justice by hiring an outside company to delete computer files beyond recovery in order to prevent authorities from proving Bloch had violated the Hatch Act by retaliating against whistle-blowers in his office, an independent U.S. government agency "charged with protecting the rights of government whistle-blowers".
On September 13, 2012, the OSC charged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with violating the Hatch Act by making a political speech during an official government event. Sebelius later said she had made a mistake and that the error was "technical" in nature.
On July 18, 2016, the OSC concluded that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro violated the Hatch Act during an interview with Katie Couric. Castro admitted the violation, but denied any intent to violate the act.
On October 30, 2016, U.S. Senate Democrat Minority Leader Harry Reid stated that FBI Director James Comey may have violated the Hatch Act by sending a letter to the Congress on October 28, 2016, which stated that the FBI would be reopening their investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[33][34] Also on October 30, Richard Painter, a chief White House ethics lawyer for the George W. Bush administration, published an op-ed saying that he had filed a complaint against the FBI with the OSC and with the Office of Government Ethics about the same matter.
In June 2017, the OSC issued a warning to Dan Scavino Jr. for an April 2017 tweet that Scavino sent advocating for a primary challenge against U.S. Representative Justin Amash.
In October 2017, the OSC issued a warning to United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley for a June 2017 tweet that Haley retweeted from President Donald Trump endorsing Republican Congressional candidate Ralph Norman.
In November 2017, former Office of Government Ethics head Walter Shaub filed a complaint against White House counselor Kellyanne Conway charging that her opposition to Roy Moore opponent Doug Jones during a segment on "Fox and Friends" violated the Hatch Act. The OSC did not comment.
Ethics? Lol, ethics are a totally foreign concept to the Trump administration.