In a prerecorded video, President Donald Trump, alongside Chad Wolf, whom he has chosen to lead the Department of Homeland Security, welcomed five immigrants through a naturalization ceremony.
They held small U.S. flags, and on the lush red carpet of the White House, became U.S. citizens, earning the right to vote and participate in democracy. The ceremonies are typically momentous and celebrated with family and close friends. But this one instead set off alarm bells, shocking government ethics experts appalled that a naturalization ceremony would be used as part of a partisan political convention.
The event featured Tuesday night in a video at the Republican National Convention was a clear violation of the Hatch Act, the experts said. The federal law serves to restrict federal employees from participating in certain political activities to safeguard federal programs from election and partisan influences.
"I have never seen an unethical abuse of public office like this one," Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said on Twitter. "This was absolutely shocking. Short of bribery or other serious criminality, I cannot recall anything remotely close to this."
Donald Sherman, deputy director of the watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the move to use the ceremony was a new level of abuse of government ethics. The organization has filed numerous complaints against White House senior officials and intends to file one against Wolf, whose appointment as acting Homeland Security secretary has been deemed invalid by the federal Government Accountability Office.
"Amidst a cavalcade of Hatch Act and other ethics violations, somehow President Trump has found a new low. The White House and acting Secretary Wolf orchestrated an unprecedented and illegal political stunt by recording an immigration and naturalization ceremony for use at the Republican National Convention," Sherman said in an email. "In many ways, last night crystallizes the twin vices that have defined the Trump presidency _ President Trump's corruption is racist, and his racism is corrupt."
The White House has defended the use of the video. In an emailed statement, a White House official said the video was previously published on YouTube and the campaign decided to use the content. They contend there was no violation. The video of the naturalization ceremony and of a pardon also shown at the convention appear to have been posted not long before the prime-time events were broadcast. The official confirmed the events were filmed by the White House.
The Hatch Act is a 1939 federal law with civil and criminal provisions, and although the president and vice president are exempt from civil violations, they can still be held responsible for criminal violations, experts say. Even before the Republican convention kicked off, government ethics experts were pointing out potential violations of the Hatch Act and other ethics issues in the Trump administration.
They have questioned Trump's intention to continue using the White House as part of his appeal to voters, including as a backdrop to his acceptance speech Thursday. And they have decried the convention speech by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who praised Trump from a Jerusalem rooftop while on an official government trip.
In response to the outcry, special counsel Henry J. Kerner, a Trump appointee, said in a statement Wednesday that the office's role is to investigate once it receives complaints, not "grandstand" about potential violations.
"Ultimately, officials and employees choose whether to comply with the law. Once they make that choice, it is the (Office of Special Counsel's) statutory role to receive complaints, investigate alleged Hatch Act violations, and determine which ones warrant prosecution," he said.
Kerner said the office has grown its Hatch Act Unit staff to respond to the increase in complaints received, typical during an election year. "OSC will continue to vigorously and even-handedly enforce the Hatch Act, consistent with its statutory authorities," he said.
The OSC statement pointed out that the agency "has no statutory authority to enforce or advise on criminal provisions derived from the Hatch Act" and that the "task belongs solely to the U.S. Department of Justice."
Here are the events that set off government ethics experts watching the Republican convention:
_ A PARDON DURING A POLITICAL CONVENTION
During the first few minutes of Tuesday night's convention, Trump granted a full pardon to Jon Ponder, who was first convicted of a felony when he was 16, and years later started an organization that helps former convicts with reentry into life outside prison.
Government ceremonies are held all the time in government offices, buildings and rooms. Although there is no issue in hosting the pardon event in the White House, Sherman said, using the event for partisan electoral politics to promote a candidate is a violation of the Hatch Act.
Corey Goldstone, Campaign Legal Center communications manager, said in an email that the event raises questions about whether federal employees who coordinated and filmed the event did so knowing it would be used for political purposes.
In a statement, Delaney Marsco, ethics counsel at the nonpartisan organization, said the mixing of federal activities and partisan politics is "unprecedented and wildly inappropriate."
"The disregard for keeping business out of politics is out of step with the norms established by previous administrations of both parties," Marsco said. "Whether or not the activity violates the Hatch Act or any other law, it clearly violates the principle that the law stands for: that public service is a public trust, and using public office for partisan political gain undermines the public's trust in the government's ability to conduct business impartially and without political influence."
_ THE NATURALIZATION CEREMONY
The most egregious violation, experts say, came when Trump and Wolf, whose position as acting secretary of Homeland Security has not been confirmed by the Senate, led a naturalization ceremony shown during the Republican convention.
"Filming the naturalization ceremony at the White House for it to be screened at the RNC is an obvious attempt by Wolf to use his official authority with the aim of influencing an election to benefit a partisan candidate," said Nick Schwellenbach, a senior investigator for the Project on Government Oversight.
The White House has said the video of the ceremony was posted on the White House's YouTube channel first. As to whether that defense holds up, Schwellenbach said, an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel could turn up evidence that the event was created to support Trump's reelection campaign, which would be a misuse of Wolf's authority and violation of the Hatch Act.
"After all," he said, "how many naturalization ceremonies are filmed at the White House on the same da y of a major party convention where the video of the ceremony is screened?"
_ MARINES IN UNIFORM
As Trump appeared in one of several videos Tuesday night, he walked through a set of double doors, flanked by two Marines. The appearance was brief but drew instant criticism.
Shaub, a consultant for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, commented but deleted his tweets because it's likely the guards were just doing what was asked of them, he said.
"They didn't violate rules. But it was appalling for Trump to use them as props for the RNC," he said. "Just disgusting."
Members of the armed forces are governed by the Defense Department, Schwellenbach said. The military restricts the appearance of partisan politics by those in uniform; the U.S. Army told The Washington Post it is investigating two members who briefly appeared in uniform during the Democratic convention's roll call last week.
According to the Defense Department, "military service members and federal employees acting in their official capacity may not engage in activities that associate the (Defense Department) with any partisan political campaign or elections, candidate, cause or issue."
Schwellenbach said that while it's likely the Marines in the Trump video did not violate Defense Department rules, the event "underscores how fraught the president's decision was to hold this nakedly partisan event on the grounds of the White House."
"The president put them in the position of being partisan props," he said.
_ FEWER ISSUES WITH MELANIA TRUMP AND LARRY KUDLOW SPEECHES
At the end of the convention's second night, first lady Melania Trump gave a speech from the recently renovated White House Rose Garden, championing her husband as a leader.
But her speech, like her husband's expected acceptance of the nomination Thursday from the South Lawn, raised eyebrows. Like federal rooms and buildings, the use of the Rose Garden, which is often a platform for the sitting president's public announcements, was concerning to some.
"The Rose Garden is used for official government business, including press conferences. They had no business using that official area of the White House for a campaign event," Shaub tweeted. "But they have cowed the head of @US_OSC, so anything goes."
Like the president, however, the first lady is exempt from the Hatch Act's civil provisions. But there is at least one criminal provision that could be relevant, Schwellenbach said. If Trump directed or coerced someone to engage in Hatch Act violations, he could be found responsible.
Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser to the president, also spoke Tuesday night. But he was identified in his personal capacity and avoided calling for Trump's reelection or opposition to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Schwellenbach noted.
_ POMPEO, SPEAKING DURING AN OFFICIAL TRIP IN ISRAEL
"I'm speaking to you from beautiful Jerusalem, looking over the Old City," Pompeo said in the video shown Tuesday night at the convention. The nation's top diplomat went on to praise the president at length, saying Trump "has put his 'America First' vision into action ... to keep our freedoms intact."
The appearance was enough to break the long-standing tradition of secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics. Was it enough to violate the Hatch Act?
At the very least, it violates the State Department's own rules that bar political activities, which goes further than the Hatch Act. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., this week released a State Department memo reminding employees of its rules and that appeared to be signed by Pompeo. The document states: "Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention or convention-related event."
"The State Department claimed that no federal resources were used, but he is in the Middle East on the government dime," Sherman said, adding that the department "needs to produce receipts showing that taxpayer funds supporting Pompeo's trip were reimbursed by a political organization."
Sherman noted that past secretaries of state, such as Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell, did not participate in party conventions when they served in those roles.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights advocacy group, believes Pompeo violated the Hatch Act. The organization filed a formal complaint, asking the State Department's acting inspector general to investigate the speech.
A House oversight subcommittee informed the State Department on Tuesday it will investigate Pompeo's RNC appearance to determine if he broke the law.
On Wednesday, when asked about whether Pompeo's speech violated the Hatch Act, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who has been accused of violating the Hatch Act multiple times by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Politico reporters in a virtual interview that concerns were overblown.
"He made it very clear he was talking in his personal capacity, used no federal assets to do that," Meadows said of Pompeo. Meadows added that he did not think people outside Washington are worried about the mixing of partisan politics and official federal duties.
"Nobody outside really cares," he said.
