WASHINGTON – More than a dozen high-level Trump administration officials improperly used their official government powers to try to influence the 2020 election, according to a federal watchdog's investigation released on Tuesday.
Among the 13 officials accused of engaging in illegal campaign activity: President Donald Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, his acting homeland security chief Chad Wolf and his counselor Kellyanne Conway.
"Senior Trump administration officials chose to use their official authority not for the legitimate functions of the government, but to promote the reelection of President Trump in violation of the law," the probe found. The federal Hatch Act bars government officials from engaging in partisan political activity.
The investigation was conducted by the federal Office of Special Counsel, which received a stream of ethics complaints during the 2020 election – particularly after Pompeo and Wolf took part in the Republican National Convention.
The OSC report describes a pervasive willingness to flout the law inside the Trump White House and suggests, in Pompeo's case at least, that the president himself may have encouraged the illegal activity.
The special counsel offered new details about Pompeo's decision to deliver a speech to the RNC from Israel, which conflicted with State Department policy and violated the Hatch Act.
Before his speech, Pompeo quietly approved a change to the State Department's policy, which "until then had prohibited him and all other political appointees at the State Department from engaging in many partisan political activities, such as addressing a political party convention," the OSC report says.
The change came just days before Pompeo delivered his highly unusual speech from Jerusalem. It applied only to him, saying the secretary of state was “not restricted from addressing a political party convention when requested by or for the President.”
"That decision was made against the advice provided to Secretary Pompeo by senior State Department lawyers," the OSC report says.
A State Department memo directing the change said that “while the overall goal of projecting a non-partisan foreign policy remains sound,” an exception was warranted given that “the secretary’s participation in the national convention is requested on behalf of the president.”
The OSC concluded that Pompeo's actions violated the Hatch Act twice – first by authorizing a last-minute change to State Department policy and second by devoting nearly his entire convention speech to official matters under his purview as secretary of state.
At the time, Pompeo staunchly defended the speech amid a firestorm of criticism.
More:'It is just so wrong': Mike Pompeo under fire for speaking to RNC from Israel
"The State Department reviewed this. It was lawful," Pompeo said in September 2020 when questioned about it. "And I personally felt it was important that the world hear the message of what this administration has accomplished."
Wolf's violation involved an Aug. 25 naturalization ceremony, which he and Trump presided over in the Cross Hall of the White House. Footage of the ceremony was then broadcast that evening as part of the GOP convention program.
"The evidence that OSC gathered shows that this official U.S. government event was scheduled and conducted for the purpose of producing content to be used at the RNC," the OSC said.
Wolf and his advisers went ahead with the ceremony even though a Department of Homeland Security ethics official warned it would violate the Hatch Act.
"As late as 10 a.m. on the morning of the ceremony—just 45 minutes prior to the event—the DHS ethics official emailed DHS leadership, including the GC (General Counsel), stating that Acting Secretary Wolf should not participate in the ceremony," the OSC report says. A DHS employee copied Wolf's chief of staff on the message and asked him to contact the general counsel.
In a written statement to the OSC, Wolf said he didn’t know the video of the ceremony was going to be used at the convention. "He further stated that his staff did not raise the matter with him beforehand because the event was cleared in advance by the DHS Office of the General Counsel."
The OSC found that other officials, including Conway, violated the Hatch Act by making partisan campaign statements while speaking in an official capacity, mainly in media interviews.
For example, then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette promoted Trump’s reelection campaign during an interview on the Brian Kilmeade Show last fall. And Conway criticized then-candidate Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate during a Fox News interview in August, while serving in her official capacity as Trump's counselor.
The OSC found many others violated the Hatch Act in similar circumstances, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman; White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah; Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner; and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Because none of these officials remain in office, the watchdog report noted that it has no authority to pursue these cases beyond issuing Tuesday's report. And none of the individuals were penalized by the Trump White House for their actions.
The Trump administration's failure to discipline anyone who engaged in violating the Hatch Act "created the conditions for what appeared to be a taxpayer-funded campaign apparatus within the upper echelons of the executive branch," the report said.
"Some officials in the Trump administration intentionally ignored the law’s requirements and tacitly or expressly approved of senior administration officials violating the law," the report says.
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