The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley violated the Hatch Act when she shared a tweet from President Trump endorsing a South Carolina congressional candidate.
“[B]ecause Ambassador Haley’s personal Twitter account included so much indicia of her official role as Ambassador and was even linked to the United States Mission to the United Nations website, it gave the impression that she was acting in her official capacity when she used this account to retweet President Trump’s message,” Erica Hamrick, deputy chief of the Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act Unit, said in a letter dated Sept. 28. “And retweeting that message, which endorsed a candidate in a congressional election, constituted political activity under the Hatch Act.”
The Hatch Act bans executive branch officials from engaging in certain political activities. Hamrick said the Office of Special Counsel declined to take disciplinary action against Haley.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the office alleging Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, violated the Hatch Act when she retweeted a message from Trump’s Twitter account in June.
“Ralph Norman, who is running for Congress in SC’s 5th District, will be a fantastic help to me in cutting taxes and …” Trump’s June 19 tweet read.
Ralph Norman, who is running for Congress in SC’s 5th District, will be a fantastic help to me in cutting taxes, and….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2017
Haley retweeted the message from her personal account, @nikkihaley, but the Office of Special Counsel said the retweet about Norman came from an account from which Haley “repeatedly invoked her official position as Ambassador to the United Nations.”
The Office of Special Counsel arrived at that conclusion after examining Haley’s Twitter photo, which was her official government headshot, as well as her biography, which listed her as “United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” and the content of her tweets. A link on the website for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations directed visitors to Haley’s @nikkihaley account.
Haley deleted the tweet after she became aware it potentially violated the Hatch Act, and the Office of Special Counsel said no other tweets indicate she engaged in political activity via Twitter.
The office said it provided the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with guidance on how to avoid Hatch Act violations.
