White House Defies Office of Special Counsel, Continues Alleged Violations of Federal Law: Report
The Biden administration continues to violate the Hatch Act by using the term “MAGA” a week after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was warned about doing so.
In a letter June 7, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act through repeated use of the term “MAGA Republicans.”
The Hatch Act, in a nutshell, prohibits government employees from “engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal facility or using federal property,” according to the Justice Department’s website.
President Joe Biden also has referred to his political opponents as “MAGA Republicans” in attempts to portray them as extreme or potentially dangerous.
In a Nov. 2 briefing at the White House, Jean-Pierre said, “Unfortunately, we have seen mega MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law.”
A day later, a complaint was filed against her by the watchdog organization Protect the Public’s Trust, led by former Trump administration official Michael Chamberlain.
In a letter to Chamberlain last week, Ana Galindo‐Marrone, chief of the Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act unit, said Jean-Pierre had been warned about her behavior.
“OSC has investigated your allegation and concluded that Ms. Jean‐Pierre violated the Hatch Act,” Galindo‐Marrone wrote.
“However … we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and have instead issued Ms. Jean‐Pierre a warning letter,” she said.
“We have advised Ms. Jean‐Pierre that should she again engage in prohibited political activity, OSC would consider it a knowing and willful violation of the law that could result in OSC pursuing disciplinary action,” Galindo‐Marrone wrote.
The OSC also issued a memo telling federal employees to avoid using the term “MAGA” while acting in their official capacity.
“MAGA remains the campaign slogan of a current candidate for partisan political office, and therefore, its use constitutes political activity,” the memo said.
In spite of the clear violation and a warning, however, Axios reported members of the Biden administration have continued to use the term.
“On Wednesday, the White House released a statement to Axios that continued to use ‘MAGA,'” the outlet reported.
“Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a memo that Republicans’ ‘main economic agenda item’ is ‘MAGA tax welfare for the richest Americans and giant corporations, at the expense of continuing to grow our economy by investing in America,'” Axios said.
Jean-Pierre addressed her warning from the OSC during her daily news briefing from the White House on Tuesday.
“We received a letter from the Office of Special Counsel, which is the independent agency that enforces the Hatch Act, as all of you know, and it communicated to us that — their opinion and — issuing a warning, but not taking further action,” she said.
“As you all know by reading the letter and the reports, the White House Counsel’s Office is reviewing their opinion and is going to respond to them.”
The press secretary said former President Donald Trump’s administration frequently used the term.
“If you look at the archived Trump White House website, it contains about 2,000 — nearly 2,000 uses of ‘MAGA’ to describe policies and official agendas,” Jean-Pierre said.
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