Today, the Michigan Democratic Party filed a complaint under the Hatch Act following a taxpayer-funded event in which Trump Administration officials illegally promoted John James’ candidacy. While the event was ostensibly organized for official purposes, it was clearly a campaign photo-op in which Trump and other senior officials in their government capacity promoted James’ campaign.
MDP is calling on the Office of Special Counsel to immediately investigate these allegations, and prevent senior White House Staff and Cabinet officials from engaging in any further activity to waste taxpayer money to try to influence the results of an election. Reports have shown Trump has increasingly used official government events in battleground states in place of campaign rallies during Coronavirus.
Here are the facts:
- The White House-organized “Listening Session with African American Leaders” in Michigan on May 21, 2020 was billed as an official government event to discuss recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic.
- The event was led by the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Secretary Ben Carson and other White House officials who organized, staffed, and supported an event which used taxpayer funds and official staff time to promote the candidacy of John James.
- The President and senior government officials who appeared in an official capacity were on taxpayer-funded time when they promoted James’ campaign and attacks were made against U.S. Senator Gary Peters. On at least five occasions, Trump endorsed James during the event, which also appeared on the White House’s official government website and YouTube channel. James also promoted his campaign at the event and uploaded footage from the event to his campaign social media pages and issued a press release publicizing his appearance with President Trump despite purportedly being there in the capacity of representing his business.
- The Hatch Act prohibits federal executive branch employees from using their official authority to influence the outcome of an election.
“Michiganders are facing unprecedented challenges, but instead of listening directly to those who are struggling, President Trump, John James and White House officials opted to turn a taxpayer-funded event into a political photo-op to try to influence the result of the election,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Elena Kuhn. “John James has shown he’ll stop at nothing to show his ‘2000%’ support for Trump and tout his endorsement, even if it violates government ethics laws and Michigan taxpayers are forced to foot the bill.”
