Top officials at the White House and Small Business Administration appear to have violated a federal law restricting government staffers from engaging in certain political activities, according to a watchdog group.
Internal emails obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust, a group investigating apparent conflicts of interest, show that both White House and SBA officials have frequently used official resources to communicate about former President Donald Trump’s campaign phrase “MAGA,” or Make America Great Again. But under the Hatch Act, federal executive branch employees are barred from “using their official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election,” the watchdog wrote in a Thursday complaint sent to the White House, the SBA’s inspector general, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a federal investigative and prosecutorial agency….
