Kellyanne Conway Should Be Removed From White House Job, U.S. Agency Says

(Bloomberg) -- White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway should be “removed from federal service” for disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity, a federal watchdog agency said.

Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from conducting politics while acting in their capacity as a federal employee, the independent U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a report released Thursday. The agency has no enforcement powers and it would be up to President Donald Trump to discipline her.

The White House immediately blasted the report, saying it was “deeply flawed” and violated Conway’s constitutional rights to free speech.

“Its decisions seem to be influenced by media pressure and liberal organizations -- and perhaps OSC should be mindful of its own mandate to act in a fair, impartial, non-political manner, and not misinterpret or weaponize the Hatch Act,” White House spokesman Steven Groves said in a statement.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote an 11-page letter to the Office of Special Counsel arguing that the agency’s report makes “grave legal, factual, and procedural errors.” The letter calls its interpretation of the Hatch Act “overboard and unsupported” and says the agency’s guidance “chills protected speech.”

Thursday’s report isn’t the first time Conway has been called out by the agency. In March 2018, the OSC said she had violated the Hatch Act in two separate interviews when she advocated for candidates in the 2017 Alabama special election for the Senate.

The agency on Thursday referred to Conway as a “repeat offender” and cited remarks she made on May 29 downplaying the significance of the Hatch Act.

“If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work,” Conway said. “Let me know when the jail sentence starts.”

Democrats sought to draw attention to the agency's findings. House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings said he'd hold a hearing with the Office of Special Council and would invite Conway to testify.

``Allowing Ms. Conway to continue her position of trust at the White House would demonstrate that the President is not interested in following the law -- or requiring his closest aides to do so,'' Cummings said in a statement.

The OSC isn’t the only watchdog agency to criticize Conway. The Office of Government Ethics admonished her and recommended additional ethics training after she violated a rule against promoting private businesses.

Conway endorsed Ivanka Trump’s apparel during a February 2017 interview with Fox News from the White House briefing room following reports that retailers, including Nordstrom Inc., had dropped the line amid declining sales. OGE’s then-director, Walter Shaub, complained that Trump took no steps to discipline Conway.

The OSC administers the Hatch Act, which bars government workers, including political appointees in powerful positions, from partisan campaigning while acting in an official capacity, including giving press interviews on behalf of the administration.

High profile officials of both parties have run afoul of its requirements, particularly during campaign season, but Conway’s numerous offenses are a first for the agency, OSC Special Counsel Henry Kerner said in a cover letter to Thursday’s report. “Never has OSC had to issue multiple reports to the President concerning Hatch Act violations by the same individual,” he wrote.

In 2016, Julian Castro, then the Housing and Urban Development secretary, was admonished for praising Hillary Clinton’s qualifications for the presidency during an interview with Yahoo News about his agency’s work. Castro, who was not disciplined by President Barack Obama, asked his office to improve training to comply with the act. In 2012, OSC found that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated it when she included political remarks in a speech at a Human Rights Campaign event in North Carolina.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joshua Gallu in Washington at jgallu@bloomberg.net;Bill Allison in Washington at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Justin Blum

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