The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) determined that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act for using the term “mega MAGA” in the White House briefing room.
The Hatch Act, passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees.
“The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” the OSC states.
The law is meant to prevent federal government employees in the executive branch, excluding the president and vice president, from affecting elections.
In a letter from the OSC, Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act when she said “mega MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law.”
The OSC decided to issue her a warning letter instead of pursuing disciplinary action.
REPORTER: "Your use of 'MAGA Republicans' violated the Hatch Act…"
KJP: "We do everything that we can to uphold…the Hatch Act…" pic.twitter.com/MO25vx6qCD
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 13, 2023
CNN reports:
The letter was addressed to Michael Chamberlain, a former Trump administration official and director of the “Protect the Public’s Trust” organization, after Chamberlain filed a complaint that Jean-Pierre used the phrase “mega MAGA Republican[s]” in an “an inappropriate attempt to influence the vote.”
“OSC has investigated your allegation and concluded that Ms. Jean‐Pierre violated the Hatch Act. However … we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and have instead issued Ms. Jean‐Pierre a warning letter,” OSC’s Hatch Act Unit chief Ana Galindo-Marrone said in the June 7 letter to Chamberlain, who served in the Department of Education during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Galindo-Marrone wrote, “OSC concluded that the timing, frequency, and content of Ms. Jean‐Pierre’s references to ‘MAGA Republicans’ established that she made those references to generate opposition to Republican candidates. Accordingly, making the references constituted political activity. Because Ms. Jean‐Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”
Galindo-Marrone suggested that the White House Counsel’s Office “did not at the time believe” that those remarks were prohibited by the Hatch Act, and that it was “unclear” whether OSC’s analysis “was ever conveyed to Ms. Jean-Pierre.”
“I was given the sign-off to use that terminology,” Jean-Pierre asserted.
WATCH:
"Do you believe that you violated the Hatch Act with those comments about 'MAGA Republicans'?"
Karine Jean-Pierre: "I was given the sign-off to use that terminology!" pic.twitter.com/piaXdAUYoR
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 13, 2023
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