Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway pushed back against accusations that her television appearances and social media use violated the Hatch Act, saying the law needs to be clarified.
Conway appeared Monday morning on Fox News to defend herself after the U.S. Office of Special Counsel put out a May 30 report saying that Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act and should be immediately removed from office.
“Well, it would be good if everybody had a quick tutorial on the Hatch Act, what it is and what it is not. It’s not even clear to us here at the White House, according to White House counsel, that the Hatch Act applies to assistants to the president,” Conway said, referring to White House attorney Pat Cipollone.
The Hatch Act bars most federal employees from political activity, such as campaigning, in the course of their work.
“We think I would be the first member of the West Wing to be hauled in front of Congress to talk about the Hatch Act,” Conway said, adding that even if the act does apply, she has not violated it.
Cipollone sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel on June 11, excoriating department head Henry Kerner over his report, calling Kerner’s recommendation to fire Conway “draconian.” Conway tweeted the letter out Monday.
“OSC’s draft report is based on multiple fundamental legal and factual errors, makes multiple unfair and unsupported claims against a close adviser to the president, is the product of a blatantly unfair process that ignored statutory notice requirements, and has been influenced by various inappropriate considerations,” Cipollone wrote.
THREAD: White House Counsel’s strong and intelligent response to OSC’s “report” on the Hatch Act provides important facts, details & legal arguments that many must have missed, choose to ignore, or have difficulty digesting. A useful primer.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 24, 2019
“OSC’s overbroad and unsupported interpretation of the Hatch Act risks violating Ms. Conway’s First Amendment rights and chills the free speech of all government employees.” pic.twitter.com/TqyqpmgXlp
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 24, 2019
“After admitting that OSC relied solely on the media report to assess Ms. Conway’s comment, you specifically said that the Office had to act quickly because it had been receiving press inquiries and had to be mindful of interest from politicians outside of the Office.” pic.twitter.com/iaKBTeuOXF
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 24, 2019
“Therefore, political activity does not include merely criticizing policy proposals offered by aspiring candidates who hope to implement them in a future administration.” pic.twitter.com/mHZ5BCOYcD
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 24, 2019
The Office of Special Counsel report accused Conway of “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media.”
Kerner recognized that his recommendation to fire Conway is “unprecedented,” but defended his decision saying, “You know what else is unprecedented? Kellyanne Conway’s behavior.”
