A federal immigration judge who endorsed Hillary Clinton during a Mexican citizen’s deportation hearing in 2016 has been barred from working in the government 30 months as punishment for a Hatch Act violation.
The Office of Special Counsel on Tuesday announced the suspension, known as a “debarment,” of former federal immigration judge, Carmene “Zsa Zsa” DePaolo, and a $1,000 fine for saying the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and other Democratic politicians needed to win the election. The fine is the maximum amount.
“Respondent’s actions raises the specter that this nation’s courtrooms are partisan, and that judges consider political platforms when advising litigants. The very nature of her offense politicizes the judiciary and the federal workforce and militates toward a more severe sanction,” an administrative law judge wrote on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board. “This conduct sends a bad message to subordinates, and possibly instils [sic] the notion that political activity is allowed at work. If a judge can say it from the bench, what stops other employees from making these statements in the office?”
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency who brought the case against DePaolo, said the immigration judge had promoted Clinton’s immigration reform plan during a March 2016 public hearing of a Mexican man illegally present in the United States. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from taking part in political activities.
The person on trial was facing a 10-year ban from re-entering the U.S. DePaolo said the punishment recommended in U.S. law was a “pretty harsh thing.” The judge said Clinton would change that as long as the “Senate becomes a Democratic body and there’s some hope that they can actually pass immigration legislation.”
DePaolo added Republicans “aren’t going to do anything” on immigration “if they can help it.” She said Republicans were going to “try to deport everybody.”
DePaolo retired prior to the board’s decision.
A spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel told the Washington Examiner most Hatch Act violations result in a settlement, but that DePaolo did not admit doing anything wrong.
In June 2018, the Office of Special Counsel filed an initial complaint with the board. That same month, DePaolo’s representation, the Gillam Law Firm, issued a news release that stated the judge “simply informed the young man of what the two major party candidates claimed they would do about the immigration laws if elected” and that “there were no citizens in the courtroom.”
DePaolo retired prior to the board’s decision.
