New York Times: White House Aides Blur the Legal Lines Between Partisans and Public Servants
President Trump’s social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., posted a message on his government Twitter account calling for the defeat of a Republican congressman who had angered the president.
His West Wing counselor, Kellyanne Conway, weighed in on the Alabama Senate race during television interviews from the White House lawn.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, used his White House title on a news release for Mr. Trump’s re-election bid.
All had complaints filed against them alleging violations of the Hatch Act, the federal law that since 1939 has barred government officials from using their positions to engage in partisan politics.
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“This is an overall attitude this White House has about these rules, that they are just not all that important or they do not apply,” said Lawrence M. Noble, the senior director and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, the nonpartisan ethics watchdog group that filed the complaints against Ms. Conway. “There are clearly gray areas, but it’s not like occasionally they stumble into the gray areas; this seems to be willful ignoring of the rules.”