A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission violated the Hatch Act during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, according to a federal agency.
The Office of Special Counsel investigated FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly for a comment that appeared to be a re-election pitch for President Trump after a government watchdog group raised the alarm.
O’Rielly was asked a question during a CPAC panel about how the independent agency can avoid “regulatory pingpong” every election cycle. To start his answer, O’Rielly said, “I think what we can do is make sure as conservatives that we elect good people to both the House, the Senate, and make sure that President Trump gets re-elected.” He then went on to predict how the fight over Obama-era “net neutrality” regulations undone by the FCC under the Trump administration might proceed.
The panel also included FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Brendan Carr, another Republican commissioner for the agency.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Austin Evers, American Oversight’s executive director, the OSC announced it had completed its investigation and found O’Reilly violated the Hatch Act, a law that bars federal employees from using their offices to campaign for or against political candidates.
O’Reilly denied to OSC that he was advocating for Trump’s re-election.
O’Rielly said his “’answer was meant to relay the point that the only way to retain that current outcome was to maintain the current leaders in government. In other words, retaining the current Administration is the only sure way to prevent regulatory ping-ponging,'” the letter stated.
But, OSC determined O’Reilly “did in fact have an answer to the moderator’s question that was not partisan — legislative action by the Senate — which he expressed only after suggesting the solution was to “make sure that President Trump gets re-elected.”
As a result, O’Reilly received a warning letter, which advised him “that if in the future he engages in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law, which could result in further action pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 1215.”
