Quote:
Originally Posted by Lcsulla
Even if she was speaking in an official capacity her comments did not violate the act so to me the whole issue is moot. Who is driving this effort to claim she violated the act - the media, an idiot like chris murphy or some partisan hack like liz warren?
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There's not much grey area here, it's pretty black or white. Under the "These federal and D.C. employees may not:" piece of the law, "engage in political activity while: on duty" is noted; where "These...employees" applies to Executive Branch workers (non-POTUS/VP). I interpreted her appearances to be as Counselor to the President, meaning it was in an official capacity.
The political activity is pretty clear, she advocated voting for Roy Moore. The question is whether she was acting in her role in the Executive Branch. I think she was.
It is a similar scenario to the one where Dem Julian Castro (HUD Sec at the time) spoke about HRC's odds of winning
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/...d-hatch-225732
And the source of this is no media or political hackery. This is normal to have OSC investigate ethics issues (as noted with the Castro example). The complaint was filed by Walter Shaub, who was the most recent Director of the US Office of Government Ethics. He joined the the ethics office in 2006, became the deputy General Counsel in 2008, and was appointed director of the office in 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Shaub