Kellyanne Conway (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty)
Ms. Conway’s disregard for the restrictions the Hatch Act places on executive branch employees is unacceptable. If Ms. Conway were any other federal employee, her multiple violations of the law would almost certainly result in removal from her federal position by the Merit Systems Protection Board.
As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway’s violations, if left unpunished, send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions. Her actions erode the principal foundation of our democratic system—the rule of law.
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— Henry Kerner, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), in a letter to the White House recommending that counselor Kellyanne Conway be removed from office due to her alleged repeat violations of the Hatch Act, namely using her “official authority to advocate for or against declared candidates for partisan political office.”
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has already responded to Kerner, saying that not only was the OSC’s report “based on numerous grave legal, factual, and procedural errors,” but that “OSC’s ‘call’ upon the president to ‘remove Ms. Conway from her federal position immediately’ is as outrageous as it is unprecedented.”
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.