Washington (WBAP/KLIF) – The US Office of Special Counsel said in a letter Wednesday that President Donald Trump could deliver his Republican National Convention speech from the White House.
The letter from Erica Hamrick, the deputy chief of the US Hatch Act Unit, comes in response to a request from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat who’s the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, for an advisory opinion after Trump earlier this month floated the idea of delivering his speech accepting the Republican nomination on White House grounds. The letter was made public in a news release from Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is the ranking member on the committee.
“The President and Vice President are not covered by any of the provisions of the Hatch Act. Accordingly, the Hatch Act does not prohibit President Trump from delivering his RNC acceptance speech on White House grounds,” Hamrick wrote.
“However, White House employees are covered by the Hatch Act, so there may be Hatch Act implications for those employees, depending on their level of involvement with the event and their position in the White House.”
Maloney said in a statement Thursday that making the speech from the White House would raise “serious legal concerns” for employees.
“As this guidance from the Office of Special Counsel makes clear, President Trump’s idea to host this campaign event at the White House raises serious legal concerns for White House employees,” she said. “While President Trump has ignored the law repeatedly throughout his time in office, surely he can find a way to accept the Republican nomination without putting federal employees in legal jeopardy.”
But Trump has turned a blind eye before to potential violations of the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of federal employees while on duty. Kellyanne Conway, for example, remained an adviser to the President despite the Office of Special Counsel recommending her removal for violating the act on several occasions.
Trump first entertained the notion of a White House speech in an interview with “Fox and Friends” earlier this month, stating, “Well, we are thinking about it. It would be easiest from the standpoint of security.”
