WASHINGTON \u2014 A federal watchdog says White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the federal law prohibiting government officials from using their positions to influence political campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Office of Special Counsel, which is unrelated to Robert Mueller\u2019s office, says Conway violated the Hatch Act twice last year when she spoke out in support of Republican Roy Moore and against his Democratic rival, Sen. Doug Jones, in the Alabama Senate race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMs. Conway, in her official capacity, attempted to influence the Alabama special election by advocating for the success and failure of candidates in that race,\u201d the report stated. Her comments came in separate interviews with Fox News and CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special Counsel Henry Kerner sent his office\u2019s findings to President Donald Trump on Tuesday \u201cfor appropriate disciplinary action.\u201d Because she is a presidential appointee, it is up to Trump to decide what \u2014 if any \u2014 punishment she will receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House disputed the independent agency\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate,\u201d deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. \u201cShe simply expressed the president\u2019s obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn fact, Kellyanne\u2019s statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act \u2014 as she twice declined to respond to the host\u2019s specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican,\u201d Gidley added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Career government officials found to have violated the Hatch Act can be fired, suspended or demoted, and fined up to $1,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conway came under fire for violating a different ethics provision last year, when she pushed Trump supporters to purchase products sold under the Ivanka Trump brand. The White house told the Office of Government Ethics she was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d to do so again and that it was providing her with additional ethics training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report said Conway did not respond to multiple requests from the Office of Special Counsel to explain her comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its response to the special counsel\u2019s office, the White House argued that Conway\u2019s job includes the role of providing \u201ccommentary\u201d on Trump\u2019s thinking, and that the unique circumstances of the Moore race need to be considered. Moore faced multiple allegations of sexual assault against teenagers, prompting Trump and the Republican National Committee to withdraw support, only to re-endorse Moore amid a contentious Senate debate on the GOP tax bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Office of Special Counsel found that the White House reasoning \u201clacks merit,\u201d adding that Conway\u2019s comments went beyond commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics who is the senior director of the Campaign Legal Center, the nonpartisan group which filed the OSC complaints against Conway, called on Trump to take disciplinary action against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe White House cannot continue to have one standard for the federal workforce generally and a lower standard for appointees who are close to this President,\u201d Shaub said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Office of Special Counsel, which is unrelated to Robert Mueller\u2019s office, says Conway violated the Hatch Act twice last year when she spoke out in support of Republican Roy Moore and against his Democratic rival, Sen. Doug Jones, in the Alabama Senate race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":40,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,33,9,40],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1151],"class_list":["post-23063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight","category-watchdogs"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WNHRKNGWXVD6THKVEMIBL4MXWA","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2018\/03\/06\/watchdog-trump-adviser-kellyanne-conway-violated-hatch-act\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n