Karen Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Code. What is this?

Karen Jean-Pierre said it will be reviewed by the White House attorney Hatch Law violation after a government watchdog sent a letter warning it of violating federal law.

The White House press secretary spoke of “MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law” during a prof Briefing last yearwhich partially led to the breach as well as a message from a monitoring group, NBC News I mentioned Monday.

“As we’ve made clear during our time in this administration, we’re certainly doing everything we can to support the Hatch Act and we take the law very seriously,” she told reporters during a news briefing on Tuesday.

Michael Chamberlain, director of the conservative watchdog group Protect the People’s Trust, He said in a message Directed to the Office of the United States Special Counsel (OSC) and White House Counsel on November 3, 2021, that Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act due to comments she made during a White House briefing the previous day in the run-up to the midterm elections.

“Unfortunately, we have seen giant MAGA Republican officials who do not believe in the rule of law. They refuse to accept the results of free and fair elections, fanning the flames of political violence with what they praise and what they condemn,” Jean-Pierre said in that briefing, which was among the remarks he made. Chamberlain pointed it out.

OSC responded with a message that was first reported before NBC News And confirmed by other outlets. Ana Galindo Maron, head of the OSC’s Hatch Law Unit, wrote that because Jean-Pierre “made these statements while serving in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act’s prohibition against using her official power or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the outcome of an election.” Despite the breach, the Open Security Council “decided to close this matter without further action” and sent Jean-Pierre a warning.

On Tuesday, Jean-Pierre said she would not “pre-empt” how White House attorneys would respond to the letter from OSC, the independent agency that enforces the Hatch Act. She also cited an archived Trump White House website that revealed that the Trump administration used the term MAGA to describe official policies and agendas nearly 2,000 times, and stated that Republicans in Congress use it as well.

She said “it will be reviewed”. “That’s what the White House counsel would do. They’d have a dialogue, a routine dialogue with the OSC. And so, I’ll just leave it there.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s briefing, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told CBS News that the opinion was under review.

What is Hatch Law and why is it important?

The Hatch Act is a federal law passed in 1939 that “limits certain political activities of federal employees,” according to the OSC, which oversees federal employee cases and is separate from Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The purpose of the law is to ensure that federal programs are administered “in a nonpartisan manner, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees advance based on merit rather than on the basis of political affiliation,” the US Office of Special Counsel said.

Previous violations of the Hatch Act

Last year, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra I violated the Hatch Act When expressing his support for the re-election of California Sen. Alex Padilla.

In the previous administration, at least 13 senior Trump administration officials were found to have violated the Hatch Act ahead of the 2020 presidential election, according to 2021 Report from the OSC. Of those, the OSC report listed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former senior adviser Jared Kushner, and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as violators of the Hatch Act, on which Trump has taken no action. administration.

“Not only did President Trump fail to do so, but he publicly defended an OSC employee who was found to have repeatedly violated the Hatch Act. This failure to enforce discipline created the conditions for what appeared to be a taxpayer-funded campaign apparatus within the upper echelons of the executive branch.”

Kellyanne Conway, who was also listed in the report and was one of former President Trump’s senior advisers, The Hatch Code has been violated many times. In 2019, it was released OSC recommended to then-President Trump that he removed her from federal service after she broke the law “on numerous occasions” by criticizing the Democratic presidential candidates in television interviews and on social media. She was later called to testify before the House Oversight Committee about the abuse, however Trump White House blocked it Appearance, citing “Constitutional Doctrines”

“In keeping with a long-standing precedent, we respectfully decline the invitation to make Ms. Conway available to testify before the committee,” said Pat Cipollone, then White House attorney.