White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain Warned for Violating Hatch Act Over Retweet

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White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain violated the Hatch Act, according to the Department of Justice.

The Hatch Act prohibits government employees, except for the president and vice president, from engaging in certain political practices such as campaigning.

In a Wednesday letter to the America First Legal Foundation (AFLF), first reported by The New York Post and obtained by Mediaite, the head of the Hatch Act Unit at the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC), Ana Galindo-Marrone, wrote that the chief of staff “retweeted a May 22, 2022 message from Strike PAC (@StrikePAC) from his official Twitter account (@WHCOS). The tweet read, ‘Operation Fly Formula delivers 70,000 pounds of infant formula for American mothers and their infants. Thank you @POTUS.’ The tweet also read, ‘Get your Democrats Deliver merch today!’ and included a link to Strike PAC’s online store and an image of the group’s ‘Democrats Deliver’ tshirt.”

AFLF sent a letter in June in response to Klain‘s retweet.

The OSC letter noted that Strike PAC “is a partisan political group, and according to its website, it ‘supports campaign finance reform and will help elect Democrats who support these vital policies.’ It also has a ‘nationalized strategy’ aimed at promoting the Democratic Party by ‘tell[ing] stories of how Democrats deliver on their promises to improve the lives of voters.’

“In this vein, Strike PAC’s message thanking President Biden served to further the group’s nationalized strategy of promoting Democrats as the party that delivers on its promises to voters. By retweeting this message, Mr. Klain used his official Twitter account to promote a partisan political group’s interests and, therefore, OSC has concluded that he violated the Hatch Act’s use of official authority prohibition.”

Galindo-Marrone wrote that “Strike PAC’s tweet constituted a solicitation for political contributions because it encouraged others to buy the group’s merchandise. A political contribution is defined as any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value, made for any political purpose (i.e., to promote or oppose a partisan political group),

“The sale of Strike PAC’s merchandise supports the group’s objective of electing Democrats, and so the purchase price is a political contribution for purposes of the Hatch Act. Thus, Strike PAC’s tweet solicited political contributions, and because Mr. Klain retweeted this message, he also violated the Hatch Act’s solicitation prohibition.”

Klain, according to Galindo-Marrone, “promptly removed the retweet upon being notified of this complaint.” Therefore, she continued, “we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and will close this matter.”