White House chief of staff Ron Klain violated the Hatch Act:
Klain was found to have violated the Hatch Act — a law prohibiting government officials from using their jobs to influence elections — over a retweet sent from his official Twitter account on May 22, which included a message to buy political merchandise for a Democratic group. He removed the retweet after being informed of the complaint. There will be no disciplinary action and Klain was warned to be more careful in the future. The message retweeted by Klain’s account was about delivering infant formula, but it also included a solicitation for Democratic political merchandise, saying: “Get your Democrats Deliver merch today!” “Although OSC has concluded that Mr. Klain violated the Hatch Act, as explained below, we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and instead issued him a warning letter,” according to a Wednesday memo from the Office of Special Counsel sent to the conservative America First Legal Foundation.
Of course, there will be no disciplinary action; he’s a Democrat. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shrugged off the violation of federal law with: “We are not perfect. But our violations have been few.”
This is, in my view, exactly why we should repeal the Hatch Act, or at least a good many of its provisions of this nature: They are not treated by either law enforcement or the media as real laws when Democrats break them, as happened last year when the law was broken by HUD secretary Marcia Fudge, or as happened when Obama administration officials violated it repeatedly — yet, it was given breathless scandal coverage when Trump officials broke the same law.
A law that is a law only when it’s broken by people out of favor with media and governing elites isn’t a law; it’s a leash. The same is true of the Logan Act and a bunch of other rules on campaign finance, lobbyist registration, and the like. If these are going to be tools of lawfare rather than laws that apply without fear or favor — or if they are simply to be flouted with impunity by everyone — take them off the books.