US Politics

Fox News labelled US president Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator” who attempted to have “his political rival arrested” during a live broadcast of Donald Trump’s post-arraignment speech.The network was the only major cable news network to carry Trump’s Tuesday evening speech live, with CNN and MSNBC choosing not to air the address.Towards the end of the speech, viewers were presented with a split screen carrying a separate speech from Biden at the White House. Below the image, the news chyron read: “wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested”.The text remained on screen until Sean Hannity came to air at 9pm.Fox News has been contacted for comment.During his speech, Trump claimed he was the victim of political “persecution”, baselessly accused Biden of directing efforts to prosecute him and said Biden was “the most corrupt president in the history of the United States”.Trump has been both impeached and indicted twice, and is currently under investigation for election interference.In explaining the decision not to broadcast the speech live, CNN news anchor Jake Tapper told viewers, “frankly [Trump] says a lot of things that are not true and sometimes potentially dangerous.”Similar comments were made by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow who said “there is a cost to us as a new organisation to knowingly broadcast untrue things.”“We are here to bring you the news,” Maddow said. “It hurts our ability to do that if we live broadcast what we fully expect in advance to be a litany of lies and false accusations, no matter who says them.”Earlier Trump attended a courthouse in Florida where he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of concealing materials containing national secrets, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.The former President was released on bond on the condition he would not discuss the case with a list of witness.These are not his only legal troubles, with a grand jury in Manhattan voting to indict Trump last month over hush many payments made to Stormy Daniels.Trump and his campaign managers are also being investigated in Fulton county, Georgia over allegations they illegally meddled in the 2020 elections in the state. More

Prosecutors charged a Los Angeles city councilman with 10 counts, including embezzlement and perjury, on Tuesday in the latest criminal case to upend the scandal-plagued governing board of the nation’s second-largest city.Curren Price Jr faces five counts of embezzlement of government funds, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office.Price was charged for having a financial interest in projects that he voted on as a council member, and having the city pay nearly $34,000 in medical benefits for his now wife while he was still married to another woman, the Los Angeles county district attorney, George Gascón, said in a statement.Between 2019 and 2021, Price’s wife allegedly received payments totaling more than $150,000 from developers before Price voted to approve projects, according to Gascón’s statement. He also is accused of failing to list the money his wife received on government disclosure forms.“This alleged conduct undermines the integrity of our government and erodes the public’s trust in our elected officials,” Gascón said.Price called the charges “unwarranted”.In a letter to the Los Angeles city council president, Paul Krekorian, Price said he was stepping down from committee assignments and leadership responsibilities “while I navigate through the judicial system to defend my name”.“The last thing I want to do is be a distraction to the people’s business,” he wrote.The council and city government have been shaken by a series of recent scandals.In March, former Democratic city councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas – a one-time legislator, county supervisor and a fixture in local politics for decades – was found guilty in federal court of seven felonies, including conspiracy, bribery and fraud.Last year, a racism scandal that shook public trust in Los Angeles government triggered the resignations in October of then city council president Nury Martinez and a powerful labor leader, Ron Herrera.After an FBI investigation, two other former city council members pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in recent years.Former mayor Eric Garcetti, who left office in December, was shadowed by sexual harassment allegations against one of his former top aides.To residents, the cumulative effect “makes the whole body politic of LA look rotten, look illegal”, said Jaime Regalado, former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.At a time when the city is struggling with an out-of-control homeless crisis, crime, and soaring housing and rent costs, “it makes everything harder,” Regalado said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA criminal complaint said a consulting firm operated by Price’s wife received a series of payments from companies incorporated or co-owned by Thomas Safran & Associates, GTM Holdings/Works and GTM Holdings, before the councilman voted to approve funding for the companies’ projects.Emails seeking comment from those entities were not immediately returned on Tuesday evening.Price was first elected to the council in 2013 and currently serves as its president pro tempore. His district includes South Los Angeles and parts of the city’s downtown. His term is set to expire in 2026.Price, who is Black, has successfully navigated changing demographics in his district – which has become increasingly Latino – and is known for being attentive to communities that are diverse.The councilman had attended a city council meeting earlier on Tuesday.Mayor Karen Bass’s office said in a statement that she had not seen the charges but was “saddened by this news”.Price’s attorney, David Willingham, declined to comment, saying he had not seen a copy of the criminal complaint.The charges were first reported on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times. More

Hours after facing criminal charges for the alleged mishandling of classified documents, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at his golf resort in New Jersey that his indictments were a “corrupt” and “political pursuit” designed to destroy him.Donors and supporters chanted Trump’s name, cheered him on and sang “happy birthday”. “I just got charged,” joked the former president, who turns 77 on Wednesday. “A wonderful birthday.”The former president was in Miami earlier in the day for his arraignment in the classified documents case. Federal prosecutors have accused him of wilfully withholding classified documents and obstructing justice, charging him with 37 federal counts including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was released on bond on the condition that he would not discuss the case with a list of witnesses. On the campaign trail, Trump has been determined to fight back in the court of opinion, keeping a busy schedule of campaign appearances and photo opportunities. In Miami, his campaign alerted reporters that he would be stopping at a restaurant, where faith leaders and fans greeted him with prayers and cheers.In New Jersey, he maintained the defiant message that he had practiced at previous campaign events, including over the weekend after the indictment was unsealed. He baselessly accused Biden of orchestrating the federal charges against him, calling them a “political persecution”. In a remarkable moment of projection, the twice-impeached, twice-indicted president who is being investigated for election interference said Biden “will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy”.Trump also called Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought federal charges against him, “deranged” and a “thug”.He misconstrued the Presidential Records Act, which he has been accused of violating, and balked at charges over “possessing my own presidential papers, which just about every other president has done”. In fact, the classified documents are not Trump’s own – the Presidential Records Act stipulates that all official documents belong to the federal government. And no president in recent history has refused to return hoards of classified documents.The ex-president’s escalating tenor comes with mounting legal troubles. Last month, a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict Trump and local prosecutors brought criminal charges over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. Meanwhile Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia, is investigating whether he and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 elections in the state, and is weighing criminal charges.“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America Joe Biden,” Trump promised cheering supporters nonetheless. “I will totally obliterate the deep state.”The event Tuesday also served as a fundraiser. The Trump campaign told Politico that it expects to raise $2m at Bedminster. Immediately after his arraignment, a blast to supporters advertised “I stand with Trump” T-shirts, free with a $47 donation, “show the Deep State and the Left that there’s not an attack on the face of this planet that can stop this movement”.A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found that the vast majority of Republicans – 81% – said the federal criminal charges against Trump were politically motivated, and the indictment did not appear to affect Trump’s leading support in the Republican presidential nomination contest.With the Republican base’s loyal support, Trump has also put his 2024 competitors in a difficult position – they can either choose to prop him up, or risk alienating core voters.“They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you,” Trump said in New Jersey. “And I just happened to be standing in their way.”Fox News, whose hosts had begun to distance themselves from the former president after a $787.5m settlement in defamation lawsuit over their airing of Trump and his supporters’ and US election lies, went back to breathlessly backing him.Over a split screen of Trump’s speech in New Jersey and Biden’s at the White House Juneteenth celebration, the network’s chyron read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” More

Even by Florida’s already unorthodox standards, the arraignment of Donald J Trump, the ultimate carnival barker, in Miami on Tuesday afternoon was something of a circus.The concept of a former leader of the free world appearing before a federal judge to deny he stole and retained some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets – keeping some in a bathroom – was surreal enough.But the historic act of the twice impeached, twice indicted ex-president actually doing so, while remaining the runaway favorite to win the Republican party’s nomination for next year’s general election, was extraordinary.Lending to the theater of the absurd outside downtown Miami’s Wilkie D Ferguson courthouse, named for a late, respected early Black judge of the southern judicial district of Florida, was a resident flock of roosters strutting around crowing, a top-hatted elderly gentleman in a red long-tailed coat waving a Trump-DeSantis 2024 flag, and a couple of dozen “Blacks for Trump” protesters insisting that “Trumpsters [sic] are not racist”.But it was the proceedings inside courtroom 13-3 that held the attention. The 45th president of the United States sat silently, sullenly, between his lawyers throughout an arraignment hearing that lasted little more than 45 minutes, folding his arms and clenching his fingers, and occasionally grimacing in his navy blue suit and trademark red tie.It was his lawyer, Todd Blanche, who did the talking for the usually loquacious Trump. “[We] most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Blanche said of the 37-count indictment that, thankfully, was not read out loud.And: “We so demand [a jury trial], yes, your honor.”There followed a robust discussion with magistrate judge Jonathan Goodman over conditions of bond. Trump will not have to surrender his passport, will not be barred from traveling domestically nor internationally, and will not have to put up any dollar amount for bail.Yet he will be banned from talking about any aspect of the case with any “witness or victim”, which includes a range of characters from his Secret Service agents to his personal valet Waltine Nauda, his co-defendant who sat alongside him looking bewildered.Watching on from the front row of the public gallery was Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, Trump’s latest bete noire, who brought this indictment from a Miami grand jury.But Trump had to remain silent here, after launching torrents of disparaging rhetoric against Smith, Joe Biden and the president’s “weaponized” justice department in recent days in television interviews and his Truth Social network.At the conclusion of the hearing, Trump turned and appeared to acknowledge the nine members of the public allowed in to watch, including one supporter in a red Make America Great Again cap, a Trump T-shirt and an eye patch.Then he chatted briefly with his legal team, and made his way to the exit.According to the US Marshals Service, Trump’s short booking process before the hearing was identical to that of any other defendant, although no mugshot was taken today, and no booking image will be released. Marshals indicated that enough photographs of Trump already existed for identification not to be an issue. Nor is he considered a flight risk.Trump’s fingerprints, however, were taken, digitally, “so he won’t be rolling in ink”, a court official said. Also checked were his address, social security number, date of birth and “recent history”.As for the mass protests promised by Trump’s supporters, and feared by Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, at a press conference on Monday, the searing south Florida heat appeared to have had its say.Thousands looked to have gathered, and were noisy enough. Yet the 94F temperatures and energy-sapping humidity of late spring in Miami are a world away from the comparatively calm conditions of early January in Washington. Faced with a heavy courthouse presence of Miami police and federal officers in tactical gear and rifles, anyone intent on similar violence to that set upon the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 was unlikely to achieve a similar result.By late morning Tuesday, only pockets of Trump loyalists, some on bicycles with oversized flags, others in Maga caps, and adorned in Stars and Stripes attire, had shown up in the media encampment on the courthouse plaza.By lunchtime, their numbers had swelled, as had those who welcomed the arraignment. One man holding a celebratory cardboard trophy bearing the words “Trump Indictment Tour 2023” was in animated discussion with a couple wrapped in yellow Don’t Tread on Me flags beloved by the Maga faithful.Circling the perimeter, a pickup truck pulled a box trailer painted, with no hint of irony, to resemble a jail cell, with Biden and other Democrats peering from behind bars. “We are taking America back,” an accompanying message stated.At the hearing’s commencement, Trump’s supporters were four to five deep at the police tape, watched by police on bicycles but making no moves to pass it. By its conclusion many had retreated to the shadows of the tall railway station on the west side of the courthouse building, close to where the Trump motorcade was waiting.The convoy had made the short journey from the Trump resort in Doral, west of downtown, where he spent the night, and accessed the courthouse complex underground. Trump entered the courthouse by a tunnel, escorted by Secret Service agents, and took an escalator to Goodman’s 13th floor courtroom.He left the same way en route to the airport, and his flight back to New Jersey.Back on the plaza, supporters who hadn’t even caught a glimpse of their champion continued to chant for him.“I don’t know if he broke the law, but really, does it matter?” Felix Castillo, a 44-year-old Cuban American from Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood said.“Whatever he did has been exaggerated by Biden, and that’s the real crime here. Biden had documents too, why isn’t he here?”Trump, meanwhile, moves on, free to continue airing his grievances at Bedminster, on Truth Social or wherever, as he focuses on the next hearing in this case, an upcoming trial in New York on charges related to a hush money payment to an adult movie star, and possible future indictments for the 6 January insurrection and election interference in Georgia.In Miami, the circus tent is down, for now at least, and Trump’s traveling show has left town. In the wings, its lead and only performer, is preparing for his next turn. More

From 3h agoDonald Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegedly hoarding government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort and frustrating efforts by the federal government to retrieve them at his ongoing arraignment in Miami, Reuters reports.Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr took to social media as their father pleaded not guilty in the courthouse.Eric retweeted a post by the Republican congressman Jim Jordan that said there were different standards of justice for the Trump and Biden families.While Donald Trump Jr praised Ohio senator, JD Vance, for saying he wouldblock all nominees to the Department of Justice over the indictment against the former president.Ohio senator, JD Vance, who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his 2022 race, has said he would block all nominees to the Department of Justice “until Merrick Garland stops using his agency to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents”.In a statement posted to Twitter, Vance called the former president “merely the latest victim of a Department of Justice that cares more about politics than law enforcement” and said he would “grind [Garland’s] department to a halt” in protest of “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump.Vance said:
Starting today, I will hold all Department of Justice nominations. If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt.
Vance’s hold will just slow down the confirmation process for DoJ nominees, who will now all need to go through a procedural vote and a confirmation vote.As Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan points out, the Ohio senator’s announcement doesn’t really change anything.As we reported earlier, Donald Trump’s personal valet Walt Nauta was not arraigned today as his lawyer was not admitted to practice in the southern district of Florida.Nauta is now scheduled to be arraigned on 27 June.A navy veteran from Guam, Nauta worked as a White House valet during the Trump administration and moved to Florida following the 2020 election to become Trump’s personal aide.Prosecutors allege that Nauta was a point person for Trump whenever he wanted to access or hide the boxes of classified documents.The indictment states that Trump directed Nauta to transport various documents to Trump’s personal residence and that Nauta helped Trump try to conceal the boxes of top secret information from the FBI. Nauta also texted two Trump employees about the documents, in one case sending a photo of a tipped-over box and classified documents spilled out on the floor of a storage room.Nauta faces several charges including conspiracy and making false statements, such as telling investigators that he didn’t know where the boxes of classified documents were being stored. He is the only person other than Trump charged in the case.Here’s a guide to the most important people involved in the indictment against Trump:Donald Trump has boarded his private plane in Miami, and is heading to his luxury golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.He is expected to make a statement on today’s criminal proceedings at a fundraising event later today.A judge has said E Jean Carroll, the writer who won a $5m jury verdict against Donald Trump last month, can pursue a separate defamation lawsuit against the former president.The writer and former Elle magazine columnist had sought to amend her original defamation lawsuit filed in 2019 so she could try to seek additional punitive damages after Trump repeated statements a federal jury found to be defamatory.A New York jury last month found Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll in a New York department store in 1996. The jury found that the former president “sexually abused” Carroll, defined as subjecting her to sexual contact without consent by use of force, and for the purpose of sexual gratification. But the jury did not find that Trump raped her. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $2m for battery and $3m for defamation.Carroll then sought to amend her separate defamation lawsuit over a similar denial by Trump in June, in which he told a White House reporter that the rape never happened and that Carroll was not his “type”. The revision also sought to incorporate Trump’s comments made in a CNN town hall, where he called Carroll’s account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job”.Here’s a clip of Donald Trump arriving at the Miami courthouse earlier this afternoon for his formal arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.Donald Trump’s visit to the famous downtown Miami restaurant Versailles, where he was greeted by supporters, was pre-planned and part of his team’s attempt to control his image, HuffPost’s SV Dáte writes.As the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman points out, Trump is determined to fight the battle in the court of public opinion for as long as possible, including by having his co-defendant Walt Nauta close by him today.After he left court, Fox News showed Trump visiting a cafe in Miami and being greeted like a wronged hero.Supporters gathered around him and prayed for him. Someone shouted: “Jesus loves you!”Trump smiled and waved to the crowd and declared: “Food for everyone!” The crowd erupted in applause and cheers. One yelled: “Keep fighting, sir!”Then, ahead of Trump’s 77th birthday tomorrow, the patrons broke out in a chorus of “Happy birthday dear Donald, happy birthday to you!”The former president remarked:
Some birthday! We’ve got a government that’s out of control.
He then made brief comments about “a rigged deal”, suggesting that “we have a country that is in decline like never before,” and promising to speak more in Bedminster, New Jersey tonight.Someone shouted: “God bless Donald Trump!” as he departed and returned to his motorcade.Donald Trump has stopped by the Miami restaurant, Versailles, after the conclusion of his court hearing, where he told customers that he would pay “for food for everyone”.A group of people appeared to pray as he entered the cafe, while a crowd sang happy birthday to the former president, who turns 77 tomorrow.Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta was also seen in the restaurant.Earlier we reported that a protester was seen running in front of Donald Trump’s motorcade as it departed the courthouse in Miami.Here’s the clip of the man being tackled by security services, as shared by MSNBC’s Manny Fidel: More

The White House is stepping up pressure on lawmakers to renew a section of electronic surveillance law which permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the US.The provision, known as section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), is set to expire at the end of the year. But its renewal is facing pushback from privacy advocates and lawmakers, some citing examples in which law enforcement search requests were misused to conduct illegal surveillance on US citizens.On Monday, Joe Biden’s administration circulated examples showing the US had used electronic surveillance under section 702 to catch fentanyl smugglers as well as the ransomware hackers who temporarily shut down the Colonial Pipeline Company in a 2021 cyber-attack that led to gas shortages along the eastern seaboard.The public campaign to build support for the provision comes as a poll released last week showed that the public is growing more skeptical of the need to sacrifice civil liberties for security.The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released last week found that 28% of adults support the government listening to phone calls and emails made outside the US without a warrant while 44% oppose the practice.More broadly, 48% of Americans said they believe it is necessary to sacrifice their rights and freedoms to prevent terrorism, down from 54% in 2021 and nearly two-thirds in 2011, a decade after the 9/11 attacks.The decline in support for foreign surveillance was notably sharp among Republicans, with just 44% saying that it is sometimes necessary compared with 69% in 2011. Among Democrats, support remained relatively constant, dropping to 55% from 59% in 2011.Republican opposition to the renewal of section 702 in some cases has responded to the failure of the FBI to clearly identify the Steele dossier – also known as the Trump–Russia dossier – as a political opposition research report without merit.Ahead of a Senate hearing into the issue on Tuesday, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham – the top Republican on the judiciary committee – said the FBI’s mistakes had damaged its reputation with Congress and the public. Nonetheless, Graham insisted that section 702 should be reauthorized.“What I’m trying to tell my constituents back home [is] the threats to the country are growing – they’re not lessening,” Graham said. “Bottom line is: let’s reauthorize this program and build in some safeguards.”Illinois’s Democratic US senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s chairman, said he’d need to “see more” of the FBI’s current reforms to support the provision’s renewal.But civil liberties groups have come out strongly against reauthorization, which is required every five years.“Although purportedly targeted at foreigners, section 702 has become a rich source of warrantless government access to Americans’ phone calls, texts, and emails,” the Brennan Center for Justice, one of 21 civil liberties groups, said in a letter on Monday opposing the renewal of section 702.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe groups said they opposed the reauthorization of the surveillance provisions the government “is using to gain warrantless access to Americans’ communications, without significant and wide-ranging surveillance reforms”.In 2022 alone, the groups said, “the FBI conducted more than 200,000 warrantless searches of section 702 communications to find Americans’ information” and that, in turn, had converted section 702 “into something Congress never intended: a domestic spying tool”.On Monday, Biden administration officials said they opposed proposals to require the FBI to get a warrant every time it searches for an American’s information.“We must not forget the lessons of 9/11,” said Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general for national security. “Unduly limiting the FBI’s ability to access lawfully collected information and imposing artificial barriers between foreign intelligence and criminal investigations will set us back decades. It will put our nation at grave risk.”In its effort to turn around opinion, the White House offered examples of when the provision had been used effectively, including learning of Beijing’s efforts to track and repatriate Chinese dissidents and to warn an American who was the target of foreign spies seeking information about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.The FBI said it has instituted better training and new rules that have sharply reduced the number of searches for American citizens after agents were found to have wrongly run queries for the names of a congressman on the House intelligence committee, people linked to the January 6 Capitol attack and participants in the 2020 protests after a Minneapolis police officer’s murder of George Floyd.The bureau said it would now immediately suspend any employee’s access to section 702 databases for any incident involving “negligence”. More

The US House of Representatives is set to resume votes on a handful of Republican-backed bills on Tuesday after a week-long impasse between Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, and a small group of far-right Republicans.Business is set to resume on the House floor on Tuesday afternoon. A slate of previously stalled votes, including a procedural measure to advance legislation protecting gas stoves, are expected to move forward.The agreement comes after a group of 11 Republicans brought the chamber to a halt last week by voting with Democrats and tanking a pair of GOP-backed bills in a revolt against McCarthy for working with Biden to address the debt ceiling. Members of the House Freedom Caucus criticized McCarthy for weak leadership.McCarthy appeared to have resolved the conflict with the holdouts following a closed-door meeting on Monday afternoon.“We know when we work together and work on conservative issues, we were winning, and we get more victories that way,” McCarthy told reporters after emerging from the talks.But lawmakers warned on Monday that they would continue to stall the GOP agenda if McCarthy did not listen to their demands. Among calls for deeper spending cuts, hardliners asked for a resolution condemning Biden’s calls for stricter gun control.“Perhaps we’ll be back here next week,” Congressman Matt Gaetz, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters as he exited the meeting.Later on Monday evening, McCarthy announced defense and domestic spending bills would include deeper spending cuts in a sign of the outcomes of the closed-door talks, according to the Washington Post.Since assuming the top House leadership role, McCarthy has struggled to gain the support of the Republican party. It took 15 rounds of votes for McCarthy to win the speakership in January as far-right Republicans stalled his confirmation.Yet other Republican members of the House criticized the hardliners for stalling their agenda. In a weekly closed-door meeting of the Republican conference on Tuesday morning, lawmakers condemned last week’s vote blockade.First-term congressman Derrick Van Orden, of Wisconsin, lashed out against the House Freedom Caucus in a fiery speech, according to multiple reports, saying his daughter is dying of cancer yet he still shows up to work every day. More

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act by referring to “mega Maga Republicans” before last year’s midterm elections, an official watchdog said.In a letter first reported by NBC News and confirmed by other outlets, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said: “Because Ms Jean‐Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”According to the OSC, the Hatch Act, passed in 1939, “​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​limits certain political activities of federal employees”.The act is meant to “ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation”.The Hatch Act was often in the news during the administration of Donald Trump.In November 2021, a year after Trump left power, the OSC said at least 13 Trump officials intentionally violated the act, not least in connection with a 2020 Republican convention held on White House grounds.Officials named included Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state; Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff; Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House counselor; Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, his father-in-law; Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary; and Stephen Miller, a senior speechwriter and adviser.The OSC report said: “The cumulative effect of these repeated and public violations was to undermine public confidence in the nonpartisan operation of government.”The Trump White House ignored Hatch Act violations. In June 2019, for example, an OSC recommendation that Conway be fired over repeated Hatch Act violations did not lead to further action.In November 2021, the OSC said “such flagrant and unpunished violations erode the principal foundation of our democratic system – the rule of law”.Regarding that OSC report, the Washington Post noted the existence of “a two-tiered system of consequences” the OSC having “fined and in some cases fired hundreds of career employees for violations during the four years when Trump was in office”.In the case of Jean-Pierre, the OSC said the press secretary violated the Hatch Act at a briefing on 2 November 2022, in referring to “mega Maga Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law” and in references to Republican candidates for office.A conservative watchdog group complained.The OSC did not recommend disciplinary action against Jean-Pierre.Its letter said: “Although we have concluded that Ms Jean‐Pierre violated the Hatch Act, we have decided to close this matter without further action.“We note, in particular, that the White House Counsel’s Office did not at the time believe that Ms Jean‐Pierre’s remarks were prohibited by the Hatch Act, and it is unclear whether OSC’s contrary analysis regarding the use of ‘Maga Republicans’ was ever conveyed to Ms Jean‐Pierre.“We have advised Ms Jean‐Pierre that should she again engage in prohibited political activity, OSC would consider it a knowing and willful violation of the law that could result in OSC pursuing disciplinary action.”A White House spokesperson told NBC: “As has been made clear throughout the administration, we take the law seriously and uphold the Hatch Act. We are reviewing this opinion.” More