According to a watchdog group, leading officers at the White House and the Small Business Administration appear to have broken a federal law that prohibits state employees from participating in specific social activities.
According to internal emails obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust, a nonprofit that investigates alleged conflicts of interest, both White House and SBA officials have regularly used established means to inform people about past president Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “MAGA” or” Make America Great Once.” However, national executive branch employees are prohibited from “using their recognized power or control to interfere with or affect the outcome of an election,” according to the regulator in a problem sent to the White House, the SBA’s inspector general, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a national investigative and legal agency.
Protect the Public’s Trust chairman Michael Chamberlain of Protect the Public’s Trust, a party that previously claimed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cheated on the Hatch Act, leading to the Office of Special Counsel’s judgment in June 2023, concluded that she did so.
According to Chamberlain, who worked in the Department of Education under Trump,” American citizens do n’t pay their public servants to wage a permanent political campaign while disparaging their opponents.”
The Hatch Act, which became law in 1939, aims to make sure that initiatives funded by taxpayers are impartial and do not use them as political force. It has been consistently violated in previous governments, including under Trump, by at least 13 leaders.
In the issue, Chamberlain’s group cited how federal employees may not use their “email account or social media to distribute, mail, or forwards willing that advocates for or against a partisan political party, candidate for political political office, or political social group”. For instance, the complaint cited an email from Protect the Public’s Trust that White House Senior Communications Assistant Brianna Stonick sent to White House colleagues in January 2023 with the subject line” Talking Points: House Republican MAGA Economic Plan” ( Talking Points: House Republican MAGA Economic Plan ).
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Moreover, Stonick sent an email in March 2023 to colleagues titled” Talking Points: President Biden’s Veto of Extreme MAGA Republican Bill”, the Daily Caller reported. Similar communications are mentioned in the complaint.
Requests for comment were not responded to by the White House and SBA.
