Democrats Authorize Subpoena for Kellyanne Conway
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, for alleged Hatch Act violations, Politico reported.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that Conway violated laws preventing federal employees from engaging in political speech on multiple occasions.
She failed to appear at a hearing to testify on the matter Wednesday, after the White House intervened.
“In accordance with long-standing precedent, we respectfully decline the invitation to make Ms. Conway available for testimony before the committee,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to the OSC.
The Democrat-led panel voted 25-16 to subpoena Conway, with Republicans defending her.
“Here, we have a clear-cut case of a federal employee violating federal law over and over and over again,” OSC chairman and Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings said.
The Wednesday hearing descended into chaos, with Republican and Democrats shouting at one another.
Just one Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, voted to approve the resolution to subpoena Conway.
While Republicans assert the accusations are an attempt to silence Conway for being an effective communicator for the president, Democrats insist that this is purely a matter of the law.
When Republican Rep. Mark Meadows said, “This is not disobeying the law,” Cummings responded, “Yes, it is!”
“We have one standard for Kellyanne Conway and another standard for everyone else,” Meadows also said.
Newsweek reported the Republican senator also described the situation as a “political spectacle” and told the chairman, “We are better than this.”
Conway is accused of violating the Hatch Act on 11 occasions in the most recent report. In a separate report last year, Conway was accused of two violations.
The law Conway is accused of having broken stops federal employees from making political speech or engaging in political activity while working on federal property.
The OSC believes Conway violated the Hatch Act when she “advocated for and against candidates in the December 2017 Alabama special election for United States Senate.”
Conway’s negative comments about Democratic presidential candidates on social media and in TV interviews are also believed to have broken the law. Conway denied that she violated the Hatch Act.
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