Scavino response to charge that he violated Hatch Act -> https://t.co/C3pXCiJaUD
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) April 2, 2017
Dan Scavino Jr., Assistant to the President and Director of Social Media, has been accused of violating the Hatch Act with this tweet from Saturday going after Republican Justin Amash in Michigan over his opposition to the Ryan/Trump Obamacare repeal and replace bill:
.@realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability.#TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) April 1, 2017
Enter the Hatch Act experts, including Richard Painter who was the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House:
This is use of official position to influence an election. Look at the photo and description underneath. Bush WH would have fired him https://t.co/xTAcfIv3K3
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) April 1, 2017
Ethics 101- You can't put official titles and WH photos all over your "personal" Twitter page and use it for partisan politics. Hatch Act
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) April 1, 2017
And he is probably deleting the "official" stuff on the Twitter page right now. https://t.co/6CBPORqfii
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) April 2, 2017
Scavino eventually did remove the parts of his bio that possibly violated Federal law, although he spelled Trump’s name wrong on his first cleanup of the page:
So @DanScavino cleaned up his "personal" Twitter account, and now there's a typo — @realDonaldTump (h/t @MateaGold https://t.co/M6ktzmYvxg) pic.twitter.com/J8Qg2kOHQ7
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 2, 2017
When asked to comment on the brouhaha by the AP, here was Scavino’s response:
What 'ethics lawyers?' The ones from the Obama Admin who want to take Trump down, or the Bush Admin who were #NeverTrump? No thanks! https://t.co/lyqw26sbGP
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) April 2, 2017
He does have a point. Painter actually filed a Hatch Act complaint against FBI Director James Comey in 2016 over his last minute review of Huma Abedin’s emails:
GWB White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter says he's filed a Hatch Act violation complaint against James Comey https://t.co/a7pot0UVFA
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 30, 2016
A White House official has denied that Scavino did anything wrong, telling the Washington Examiner, “He has taken the necessary steps to ensure there is a clear distinction between both Twitter accounts.”
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