Like many scandals do these days, it all began with a tweet. The inability of Trump to get the American Health Care Act passed was blamed, at least in part, on the House Freedom Caucus of the Republican Party. On Saturday, Scavino tweeted Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), a member of the caucus, was a liability and should be defeated in the 2018 primaries. The tweet was sent from Scavino’s personal Twitter account, not his official one.
.realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. justinamash is a big liability.TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) April 1, 2017
Although using his personal account, the page at the time listed his official position in the Trump administration and showed a picture of him in the Oval Office. His official position has since been removed from his page and other changes have been made.
Richard Painter,chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House, said the post violates the Hatch Act and Scavino should be immediately fired. He noted the page was not simply about personal things but was “chock full of official stuff.”
Daniel Jacobson, a lawyer in the Obama administration, agreed with Painter. He said if someone in Scavino’s position creates a personal account but tweets about his position, puts his official position on it and has White House photos on the page, it becomes a de facto official account. Like Painter, Jacobson believes Scavino has violated the Hatch Act.
The Hatch Act
The Hatch Act was passed in 1939 in an attempt to prevent federally paid employees from participating in partisan activity. Its purpose is to prevent or at least reduce political corruption and to make sure services provided by federal employees are carried out in a nonpartisan way.
Relevant to Scavino, the Hatch Act prohibits persons using their official positions or influence to interfere with an election or do something that will affect the results of an election. Scavino’s critics say the calls to defeat Amash during the next series of primaries violates the particular section.
Response from the White House
In response to the criticism, Scavino tweeted “What ethics lawyers?” He said “No thanks” to lawyers from the Obama administration and to the #NeverTrump lawyers in the preceding Bush administration.
What ‘ethics lawyers?’ The ones from the Obama Admin who want to take Trump down, or the Bush Admin who were NeverTrump? No thanks! Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) April 2, 2017
The White House responded that the Twitter account was Scavino’s personal one and not an official account so therefore there has been no violation of the Hatch Act. The White House also told ABC News Scavino has both an official and a personal account and has taken steps to make sure there is a clear distinction between the two.
Amash responded to Scavino’s tweet by saying in attacking conservatives, libertarians and independents, Trump has merged with the establishment.
Trump admin & Establishment have merged into Trumpstablishment. Same old agenda: Attack conservatives, libertarians & independent thinkers. Amash (@justinamash) April 1, 2017
