Former Bush WH Ethics Lawyer Files Hatch Act Violation Complaint Against Comey

[Panich52]

Last edited Sun Oct 30, 2016, 08:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Former Bush WH Ethics Lawyer Files Hatch Act Violation Complaint Against Comey
@crooksandliars / Sarah P


Fall out after the FBI Director James Comey's decision to release a shockingly vague and ill-timed letter regarding newly discovered emails somehow, possibly, loosely related to Hillary Clinton has been fast and furious. ...

(snip)

Anyways, this whole thing has been a shocking development, coming just 11 days before the election, with early voting already going on in dozens of states. Many came out and declared that this was a possible "Hatch Act" violation. For those that don't know what that means (myself included, until I looked it up), it is defined as:

"The Hatch Act of 1939 is a piece of United States federal legislation which prohibits federal employees, employees of the District of Columbia and certain employees of state and local governments from engaging in partisan political activity."

Certain federal agencies are under tighter restrictions than other employees, with the FBI falling under that category.

To that end, numerous legal minds from both sides of the aisle have come out with strong views, none of them favorable to Comey. Just yesterday the White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, Richard Painter, filed a Hatch Act Violation complaint against Director Comey.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, 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."

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


*****

By Painter's logic, Rep Jason Chaffitz is as, or more, guilty than Comey. After all, the FBI sent the letter to Congress, not the press and Chaffitz tweeted about it apparently even before Dems on Cmte knew it existed.

[Farmgirl1961]

1. Awesome!

Does anyone know what the process involves or what could happen as result of this filing? If shown that Comey was/is in violation of the Hatch Act, I assume he will have to answer to this violation (i.e., be dismissed) or something like that.

In the meantime, the friggin' media and Dumpster continue to make hay of this. There certainly should be repercussions for this action!

[LAS14]

2. Where did this come from?

Link triggers an alert that connection isn't safe.

[Panich52]

4. Crooks&liars but I saw it 1st on @amjoyreid

[Bill USA]

6. will GOP-tv M$M report on this?

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