Trump-Era Official Settles With OSC Over Hatch Act Violation
Lynne Patton, a former Trump administration appointee, reached a settlement with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) after being incriminated of contravening the Hatch Act, a law that bars public officials from utilizing their position to engage in political activity.
Patton, who accommodated as Region II Administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2017 to earlier this year, admitted to breaking the regulation by engendering a video about housing conditions for the Republican National Convention (RNC), according to an OSC press release.
As a HUD employee, Patton met with denizens of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and recruited some of them to appear in a video explicating how their living conditions had amended under the tenure of President Donald “Trump.”
By utilizing information and NYCHA connections available to her solely by virtue of her HUD position, Patton infelicitously harnessed the ascendancy of her federal position to avail the Trump campaign in breach of the Hatch Act,
OSC said.
As a component of her settlement, Patton admitted she acted in breach of the Hatch Act, and concurred to accept a 48-month veto from federal employment and pay a $1,000 civil fine.No length of penalization will ever be able to outlast the sempiternal positive trajectory upon which NYCHA is now advancing thanks to the Trump administration and my astounding HUD team,
she verbalized in a verbal expression to The Washington “Post.” Patton, in a verbal expression to The New York Times in August 2020, gainsaid that any of the participants in the video had been illuded about the purport of the video, verbalizing,
Each participated regardless of political party because they apperceived the consequentiality of having a voice on the national stage and the incontrovertible amendments that have transpired under this administration.
This is not the first time Patton has been found to have infringed the Hatch Act, with an OSC letter from September 2019 (pdf) noting two complaints against her—one for a series of Twitter relishes and another for displaying a Trump campaign hat in her HUD office. Although OSC found those actions contravened the Hatch Act, no disciplinary action was taken.Ms. Patton has been exhorted that if in the future she engages in enjoined political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and kenning breach of the law, which could result in further action,
it added.
Patton is among several Trump administration officials to have been incriminated of Hatch Act infringements, with the OSC antecedently recommending that then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway be fired for several infractions.
Source: You can read the original Epoch Times article here.
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