Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released this report on Nov. 9:
The Office of Special Counsel today released a report finding that at least 13 senior Trump officials violated the Hatch Act, following CREW's numerous complaints against Trump administration officials. Most of the findings, including those against Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Mark Meadows, Kellyanne Conway and Kayleigh McEnany appear to have originated with CREW's complaints. Though not included in the listed 13, the report also finds that Ivanka Trump violated the Hatch Act, based on a CREW complaint.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder released the following statement:
"This report confirms that there was nothing less than a systematic co-opting of the powers of the federal government to keep Donald Trump in office. Senior Trump administration officials showed an open contempt for the law meant to protect the American people from the use of taxpayer resources and government power for partisan politics. OSC notes that there are significant enforcement challenges to enforcing the Hatch Act. Legislation like the Protecting Our Democracy Act would fix that. Congress must act now so that this never happens again."
Other officials found to violate the Hatch Act today apparently based on CREW complaints include Dan Brouillete, Chad Wolf and Marc Short, among others.
Previous CREW Hatch Act complaints during the Trump Administration led to reprimands of an unprecedented number of Trump administration officials, including Dan Scavino, Nikki Haley, Stephanie Grisham, Raj Shah, Jessica Ditto, Madeleine Westerhout, Helen Aguirre Ferre, Alyssa Farah, Jacob Wood, Peter Navarro, Kellyanne Conway and Lynne Patton. Following CREW's complaints against Kellyanne Conway, OSC took the unprecedented step of recommending Conway be removed from federal service in a scathing report detailing her numerous ethics violations.
CREW was founded in 2003 as a nonpartisan non profit 501(c)(3) organization. Their mission statement is: "Using bold legal actions and in-depth investigations, CREW targets government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests and personal gain."
CREW has had major successes holding those who abuse the system to account, compelling the government to be more open and transparent, and driving secret money and influence into the light.
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