Over the past week, the news-consuming public has been understandably focused on the attacks against U.S. embassies in the Middle East. But in the midst of the foreign policy crisis, another important story was unfolding within the Obama administration. On Wednesday, the government’s independent Office of Special Counsel found that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law when she appeared at an event in her official capacity and on government time to promote President Obama’s re-election. The chief executive took no disciplinary action despite a clear finding of an illegal act by one of his senior appointees.

As OSC details in its report, Sebelius traveled to Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 25, 2012, in her official capacity as a Cabinet official to be the keynote speaker at a gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group. During her speech, she veered from her prepared text, and made a number of explicitly political remarks. Among other partisan statements, she urged the audience, “it’s hugely important to make sure that we re-elect the president and elect a Democratic governor here in North Carolina.”