Watchdog clears White House of Hatch Act violations
Source: Politico
The federal watchdog tasked with enforcing the Hatch Act has cleared the White House’s political affairs office of any wrongdoing in violation of the 20th century law that bars political activity by executive branch employees.
In a letter dated Thursday to Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, U.S. Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said the Obama administration’s White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach “appears to be operating” within the law.
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I)t appears that the White House adhered to OSC guidance in determining the scope of activity for OPSO. To the extent that OPSO’s activities are limited to those described in the White House correspondence, OPSO appears to be operating in a manner that is consistent with Hatch Act restrictions,” Lerner wrote.
The verdict from Lerner comes as Oversight Committee Chairman Darell Issa is preparing to hold a hearing Friday morning to examine the political activities of the Obama administration. The California Republican has accused the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach of behaving as a de facto campaign arm for Democrats.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/white-house-hatch-act-109364.html
What Issa is investigating is one of the pieces of evidence in this new "impeach Obama" book by Ben Shapiro, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration. Specifically, Shapiro cites a case where former HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius made an apparently political remark at an official event. (HHS later reclassified the event from "official" to "political".)
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