Kanye West’s visit to the White House yesterday was a sh*tshow in more ways than we can count, but one of them has actually gotten a top administration member in a bit of legal trouble!
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was caught breaking a federal law yesterday when she tweeted a photo of her alongside West, who was wearing one of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats. After seeing this, Watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint against Sanders, stating that she had violated the federal Hatch Act.
Never a dull moment in the @realDonaldTrump White House. Thank you Kanye West! pic.twitter.com/BS4rzZVlZJ
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 11, 2018
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their social media accounts, offices, or any other work resource for political purposes — which was exactly what Sanders did.
BREAKING: The Watchdog group CREW has just filed a Hatch Act complaint against Sarah Sanders after she had a picture taken with Kanye West in MAGA hat, and then posted it on her official Twitter account.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if she got fined/suspended for this?
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 12, 2018
Punishment for violating the Hatch Act carries a $1,000 fine and can even include disciplinary actions such as suspension or (this would be really awesome) termination. In its complaint, the watchdog noted that the Office of Special Counsel had stated that any “MAGA” references were a violation.
However, this incident is just one more in a long list of Hatch Act violations made by the Trump administration. In August, Sanders and 10 other White House employees were cited in a CREW complaint after posting support for Trump’s 2020 run. CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said:
This administration does not seem to care about what the law says when it comes to ethics issues like using official positions for politics. How many investigations and findings of violations are needed until this administration takes action to stop the misuse of government resources for political activity?”
Other administration members that have received warnings from the Office of Special Counsel for violating the Hatch Act include Stephanie Grisham (the spokeswoman for FLOTUS Melania Trump), outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and White House social media director Dan Scavino. Considering who’s boss of this circus, we’re not surprised to see such disrespect for the law.
Featured image via screen capture
