By Samuel Mattison
Alabama Political Reporter
The Office of the Special Counsel announced on Tuesday that Trump staffer Kellyanne Conway broke the law when she campaigned for former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.
In the agency’s statement, they said that Conway violated the Hatch Act, which prevents federal employees from using their official positions as a platform to campaign in an election. The president and vice president are excluded from the act.
The office, which investigates and prosecutes federal employees, sent a report to President Donald Trump with evidence of Conway campaigning for Moore and against his opponent, Doug Jones.
In the report, the agency said Conway appeared on the show Fox and Friends in November as a White House official to tell viewers to support Moore and not Jones.
“Folks don’t be fooled. He’ll be a vote against tax cuts,” Conway said of Moore’s opponent Jones on the program. “He’s weak on crime, weak on borders. He’s strong on raising your taxes. He’s terrible for property owners, and Doug Jones is a doctrinal liberal, which is why he’s not saying anything and why the media are trying to boost him.”
When asked about if people should vote for Moore, Conway’s only response was that the Senate needed votes to pass Trump’s tax cuts, which was a pressing issue at the time.
Another violation, the agency says, happened on the CNN program New Day where Conway again endorsed Moore and lambasted Jones. While Conway mainly represented the president’s views, the agency argued that the move was an attempt to skew the election results, which is a violation of the Hatch Act.
According to the investigation, the Office of White House Counsel met with Conway after the Fox News Appearance with concerns that she may have violated the Hatch Act. She was again reminded of the act in an email blast to White House staffer in the final days of the Senate election.
“Ms. Conway’s statements during the Fox & Friends and New Day interviews impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election for U.S. Senate,” the report reads.
While the Office of the Special Counsel found Conway had violated the act, the agency said it did not discipline White House employees. Discipline of Conway would be left solely to Trump and his administration.
