The House Oversight Committee is threatening to subpoena White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway over alleged violations of the Hatch Act.
Democrats have accused Conway of violating the Hatch Act, a 1939 law which prohibits employees in the executive branch (except for the president and vice president) from engaging in political activities. Conway has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump’s political opponents. (RELATED: ‘That Comment Is Beneath You:’ Jake Tapper Fires Back At Kellyanne Conway)
Democrats on the committee sent a memo Friday saying that they will vote to subpoena Conway Wednesday morning if she refuses to appear before the committee, which she is expected to do.
Republican president-elect Donald Trump along with his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway acknowledge the crowd during his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in the early morning hours of November 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The memo relies on a report from the the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal watchdog which recommended that Conway be fired, saying that she had repeatedly violated the act. The OSC’s findings concluded that Conway’s comments on the 2017 U.S. Senate election in Alabama as well as her criticisms of Democrats who are running for office justified the office’s firings.
The President has defended Conway, and he made clear that he has no plans to fire her, saying that the Act violates her First Amendment rights.
“You ask them a question, you ask a person a question, and every time you are supposed to say I can’t answer, I can’t answer? I mean, she’s gotta have the right of responding to questions. It really sounds to me like a free speech thing,” Trump said on Fox and Friends last week. “A person wouldn’t be able to express themselves and I just don’t see it.”