Public Citizen accused the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other federal agencies of “blatant” violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes, through postings on the agency websites about the shutdown.
The non-profit advocacy organization filed a compliant with the U.S. Office of Special Council (OSC) against HUD Secretary Scott Turner, asserting he is responsible for postings as the head of the agency.
“The official HUD web page includes two highly partisan postings,” the complaint alleges. “One that describes congressional Democrats as ‘the Radical Left’ seeking to ‘inflict massive pain’ on the American people ‘unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands.’ It then goes on to idolize the Trump administration as ‘working to keep the government open for the American people’ without attributing any blame for the lack of compromise causing the shutdown. The post is in bold print, 36-inch size, and prominently displayed on the HUD web page paid for by tax dollars.
“The second post is equally as partisan and political in nature, reciting the same derogatory descriptions of congressional Democrats, blaming solely Democrats for causing the shut down, and heaping praise for the virtues of Donald Trump in attempting to protect the American people. This time the post is soaked in blood red color.”
Craig Holman, an expert on government ethics who works with Public Citizen, filed the complaint and offered commentary in which he posed the question: “How on Earth does HUD think they can get away with this?” He then provided an answer to his own question.
“The answer is that the Trump administration has managed to neuter the ethics enforcement offices in the executive branch,” he said, according to a Public Citizen press release. “Those who are responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act — namely, the Office of Special Counsel, followed by the Office of Government Ethics and the Attorney General’s office — have all been taken over by Trump loyalists or those who are intimidated by Trump.”
He contended the “sheer crassness” of the postings to a taxpayer-funded federal agency “to campaign against Democrats and promote the Trump administration is going to make it exceedingly difficult for even a neutered ethics office to ignore.”
Turner said HUD is “not worried about this at all” about being accused of Hatch Act violations during a televised interview with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Oct. 2, adding, “what we really need to be talking about is how this shutdown is affecting the American people.” He claimed the Democrats are using the Hatch Act allegations as a distraction from the impact of the shutdown.