White House domestic policy chief accused of repeated Hatch Act violations

White House domestic policy chief Neera Tanden has been accused of repeatedly violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal government employees from engaging in campaign activity in their official capacity.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) brought a complaint against Tanden, claiming she made unlawful solicitations after being notified by OSC that some of her earlier solicitation posts were in violation of the law.

“Tanden knowingly solicited political contributions by posting or reposting requests for financial contributions to the campaigns of candidates for partisan political office,” OSC said in the complaint.

It outlined that in July, Tanden reposted on her X account a post from Vice President Harris’s campaign that asked for donations and included a link to her campaign website. In August, Tanden also reposted on X a post from a campaign official asking for donations to Harris and then reposted on X a post asking for contributions to House candidates.

She also shared on X a post asking for donations to Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-Pa.) reelection in September and, later that month, shared three more posts about contributing to Democrats.

OSC outlined that its attorneys spoke with the White House Counsel’s Office about Tanden and an attorney said he would notify Tanden of the violation. She then removed one of the posts from August.

White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said the White House is reviewing the OSC complaint and referred to a 2021 OSC report that found “in the case of violations by Senate-confirmed presidential appointees — and, in OSC’s view, also by commissioned officers within the Executive Office of the President — OSC may only submit a report to the president.”

“The White House and Ms. Tanden take compliance with the Hatch Act seriously. As soon as these retweets — which primarily consisted of non-fundraising content — were brought her to attention, she appropriately deleted them. The White House is reviewing the complaint,” Bates said. “However, as recently as November 2021, the Office of Special Counsel stated that there are ‘significant constitutional concerns’ with the MSPB disciplining White House commissioned officers, and that it was ‘legally required’ to refer such matters to the President.”

The OSC complaint outlined that certain senior White House employees, including Tanden, are exempt from some of the Hatch Act’s prohibitions but that “all employees — including senior White House employees — are at all times prohibited from soliciting political contributions to political parties or candidates for partisan political office.”

OSC in December informed the White House that press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Bates violated the Hatch Act, explaining that criticizing “MAGA” Republicans when discussing the GOP budget plan earlier this year was a violation.

The former Trump administration was the subject of numerous Hatch Act complaints during its four years in power. n one notable example, the OSC found White House counsel Kellyanne Conway to have violated the act repeatedly by posting on social media and sharing on television disparaging Democratic presidential candidates.

An OSC report released after Trump left office found that 13 officials had violated the law by campaigning for the former president as he ran for reelection in 2020.

During the Biden administration, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, former chief of staff Ron Klain and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge have all also been warned for making comments about candidates or an election.