October 30, 2016

Former WH Ethics Lawyer Files Hatch Act Violation Complaint Against Comey

Source: NYTimes, C&L

Painter outlines a case against Trump, laying out his possible connections to Russia and how nothing is being discussed publicly from the FBI, but then does a 180 pivot to what actually came out, this vague statement on emails. Painter states it quite clearly:

"Violations of the Hatch Act and of government ethics rules on misuse of official positions are not permissible in any circumstances, including in the case of an executive branch official acting under pressure from politically motivated members of Congress. Such violations are of even greater concern when the agency is the F.B.I."

And this is the kicker:

"But an official doesn’t need to have a specific intent — or desire — to influence an election to be in violation of the Hatch Act or government ethics rules. The rules are violated if it is obvious that the official’s actions could influence the election, there is no other good reason for taking those actions, and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously do want to influence the election."

No intent is needed. The fact that Comey put in motion actions that could affect the election is in and of itself a violation of the Hatch Act. Period. And there is no disputing that his actions are having an affect. Painter closes with this:

"This is no trivial matter. We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power. Allowing such a precedent to stand will invite more, and even worse, abuses of power in the future."

Read more: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/10/former-white-house-ethics-lawyer-gwb-files

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And the actual op-ed, here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/opinion/on-clinton-emails-did-the-fbi-director-abuse-his-power.html

"And that is why, on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics. I have spent much of my career working on government ethics and lawyers’ ethics, including two and a half years as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, and I never thought that the F.B.I. could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week. For the sake of full disclosure, in this election I have supported Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Hillary Clinton for president, in that order."

And according to the WashPost,
" there is only one penalty, as I understand it, for violation of the Hatch Act for a federal employee. And that is removal. "

So it looks like neither President Obama nor President Clinton will need to actually fire the guy...