An investigation has been opened into whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated the Hatch Act in his speech to the Republican National Convention, two top Democrats confirmed on Monday.
Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Nita Lowey, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, released a statement that said the Office of Special Counsel is evaluating whether the nation’s top diplomat violated the 1993 law designed to restrict federal employees, other than the president and vice president, from engaging in political activity while in their official capacity.
At issue is Pompeo delivering a speech from Jerusalem to the convention in August. The State Department said at the time that the secretary of state was in his “personal capacity” when he addressed the event.
“As we get closer to both this year’s election and his own inevitable return to electoral politics, Mike Pompeo has grown even more brazen in misusing the State Department and the taxpayer dollars that fund it as vehicles for the Administration’s, and his own, political ambitions,” Engel and Lowey wrote. “The Department has repeatedly missed Congressional overseers’ deadlines for producing documents on his recent domestic speeches that will help us understand whether they were improper political activities. So we’re grateful to OSC — whom Mr. Pompeo can’t fire as he did the Inspector General — for looking into this matter.”
They added, “The State Department has a legal obligation under the Federal Records Act to create and retain documentation of the Department’s actions, including by the Secretary and his inner circle. Congress has every right to review those official records. Whether it’s before Secretary Pompeo’s departure or afterwards, the truth about this administration’s corruption will come out.”
Following this story’s publication, a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner: “Sen. Menendez tried this already with his Hatch Act complaint that was soundly rejected by the Office of Special Counsel earlier this year. We have no doubt this political stunt by House Democrats eight days before an election will yield the same result.”
Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf also faced accusations that his role in a convention event was a violation of the Hatch Act. He participated in a naturalization ceremony that aired during the convention, sparking backlash from Democrats and an email sent to employees reminding them that they’re prohibited from engaging in “partisan political activity.” Wolf later said he was unaware that film of the ceremony would appear during the convention.
Pompeo, a former Republican congressman and CIA director, previously sparked backlash and calls from liberal watchdog American Oversight for another Hatch Act inquiry after he said he planned on releasing emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before Election Day.
