The law’s application to political appointees has increasingly been caught up in partisan “whataboutism” in recent years. Image: The Image Party/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Office of Special Counsel has said that former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley last year violated the Hatch Act “by advocating against a candidate for partisan political office while giving an interview in his official capacity”—specifically by saying that “proposals that are coming from [then-candidate] Donald Trump would quickly deplete Social Security.”
“The mere fact that Mr. O’Malley referenced nebulous policy “proposals” does not insulate him from Hatch Act liability for what was otherwise an express message to voters that they had a responsibility to vote against President Trump,” the OSC said in a report to the White House.
It said that the report was being issued as a standard practice even though “disciplinary action is no longer possible.”
The law’s application to political appointees has increasingly been caught up in partisan “whataboutism” in recent years. The OSC for example in 2021 had issued findings of violations by 13 political officials of the Trump administration who by then were similarly out office.
While violations of Hatch Act restrictions on partisan politics can result in penalties up to firing for career employees, referring violations by political appointees to the White House typically results in few if any consequences.
Last year, then-Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger announced that he would begin prosecuting violations before the MSPB in the same way the OSC does with career employees, and filed what amounted to be a test case against a senior Biden administration official. However, last month the OSC dropped that policy, citing questions of the MSPB’s jurisdiction over political appointees.
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