Now that the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is calling for Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s firing over violations of the Hatch Act, comparisons will surely be made to the two Obama administration officials who were found to have violated the same act. Here are the key differences.
On Thursday, the OSC released a report that found Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits certain partisan political activities by federal employees, and which called for her removal from federal service.
During President Barack Obama’s administration, OSC similarly found two executive branch officials guilty of Hatch Act violations, one of whom is currently a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Then-HUD Secretary Julian Castro was found to have violated the act in 2016 when, during an April interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric, Castro mixed politics with his official duties by pontificating on the 2016 presidential election after having discussed administration policy.
Castro prefaced that section of the interview by saying “now, taking off my HUD hat for a second and just speaking individually,” then spoke for about ten minutes on the election:
Yeah, some of that didn’t age very well.
It was for this single incident that Castro was cited.
“Despite his efforts to clarify that he was speaking only for himself and not as a HUD official when answering political questions, Secretary Castro’s statements impermissibly mixed his personal political views with official government agency business” the OSC’s report read.
The report also noted that Castro expressed “regret” for the violation, to which he admitted in a letter to OSC, while maintaining that the violation was not intentional. OSC did not recommend punishment for Castro, and no punishment was meted out.
The other Obama-era violation was committed by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, for remarks she made at the February 25, 2012 Human Rights
Campaign Gala. During the speech, OSC said Sebelius violated the act by deviating from her prepared remarks to advocate for Obama’s reelection, as well as for the election of then-Lt. Governor Walter Dalton as North Carolina governor. Following the event, Sebelius changed the event classification to “political” and reimbursed the government for expenses related to the event.
Like Castro, Sebelius admitted the violation, while also claiming it was unintentional, and like Castro, this was the only incident for which she was cited. And unlike Conway’s case, OSC did not recommend any penalty for Sebelius.
In recommending Conway’s removal, OSC noted that she is a “repeat offender,” and while Sebelius and Castro admitted to and expressed regret for their respective single incidents, OSC noted that Conway “downplayed the significance of the law as applied to her.”
During a press gaggle at the end of May, Conway first falsely claimed that she had never been found in violation of the act, and made a pair of statements that were quoted in the OSC’s finding: “If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work,” and, “Let me know when the jail sentence starts.”
Despite these significant differences, one other similarity is likely to remain. Neither Castro nor Sebelius were punished, and if the White House’s initial reaction is any indication, Conway won’t be either.
Watch the Fox & Friends interview cited in OSC’s report above, via Fox News.