Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway should be removed from office for repeatedly violating a law barring federal employees from engaging in election politics in their official capacity, the Office of Special Counsel said.
On Thursday, the Office of Special Counsel sent a report to President Donald Trump, detailing how Conway "violated the Hatch Act on numerous occasions by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media," according to a statement.
An accompanying letter from the head of the Special Counsel, Trump-appointee Henry Kerner, called Conway's "disregard for the restrictions" of the Hatch Act "unacceptable."
"Her actions erode the principal foundation of our democratic system _ the rule of law," Kerner wrote.
White House deputy press secretary Steven Groves fired back at the agency's report, calling the office's actions against Conway "unprecedented," "deeply flawed," and in violation of her constitutional rights to free speech and due process.
"Others, of all political views, have objected to the (Office of Special Counsel's) unclear and unevenly applied rules which have a chilling effect on free speech for all federal employees," Groves said. "Its decisions seem to be influenced by media pressure and liberal organizations _ and perhaps OSC should be mindful of its own mandate to act in a fair, impartial, non-political manner, and not misinterpret or weaponize the Hatch Act."
The Office of Special Counsel is a federal watchdog agency that enforces the Hatch Act and is not related special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
