13 Trump Administration Officials Violated Campaigning Law

A report published by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that 13 Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from engaging in campaign activity.

"Taken together, the report concludes that the violations demonstrate both a willingness by some in the Trump administration to leverage the power of the executive branch to promote President Trump's reelection and the limits of OSC's enforcement power," the OSC said in a release.

NEW: At least 13 Trump officials — including Mike Pompeo and Chad Wolf — turned the federal government into a sprawling, taxpayer-funded political machine in violation of the Hatch Act, a top watchdog says.

https://t.co/QC9XaZWEOx
— Axios (@axios) November 9, 2021

Unprecedented in the history of the Hatch Act. An entire administration at the most senior levels devoted to illegally using federal office to promote the president’s political campaign.
Disgusting. https://t.co/4G0MXH0toM
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) November 9, 2021

“The president’s refusal to require compliance with the law laid the foundation for the violations. In each of these instances, senior administration officials used their official authority or influence to campaign for President Trump. Based upon the Trump administration’s reaction to the violations, OSC concludes that the most logical inference is that the administration approved of these taxpayer-funded campaign activities,” the report says.

The 60-page report found that numerous members of the Trump administration illegally participated in the 2020 Republican National Convention. The report found that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf violated the law by pre-recording speeches that aired during the convention.

The report found that Pompeo and Wolf repeatedly ignored warnings from ethics officials saying that their actions would violate the law.

Other Trump administration officials who were in violation of the 1939 campaigning law were former Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; former White House communications director Alyssa Farah; former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany; then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; former Trump senior advisers Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner; Marc Short, the former chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence; national security adviser Robert O'Brien; and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The probe began during the final months of the Trump administration and no punishment is expected to take place because the president in office at the time is the only one who can reprimand his own administration officials.