Kellyanne Conway, senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

Updated at 1:07 p.m.

A federal agency watchdog on Thursday recommended the Trump administration fire counselor Kellyanne Conway for alleged repeated violations of a federal law that restricts government employees from engaging in certain political activities while on work duty.

“Ms. Conway's disregard for the restrictions the Hatch Act places on executive branch employees is unacceptable,” Henry Kerner, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, said in a letter to the White House. “If Ms. Conway were any other federal employee, her multiple violations of the law would almost certainly result in removal from her federal position by the Merit Systems Protection Board.”

Kerner continued: “As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway's violations, if left unpunished, send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act's restrictions. Her actions erode the principal foundation of our democratic system—the rule of law.” The office said it “respectfully requests that Ms. Conway be held to the same standards as all other federal employees and, as such, you find removal from federal service to be the appropriate disciplinary action.”

The report called Conway a “repeat offender” of the Hatch Act for using her “official authority to advocate for or against declared candidates for partisan political office.”

The special counsel's office last year criticized Conway in a report alleging ethics violations. At the time, the White House denied Conway had run afoul of Hatch Act provisions. “She simply expressed the president's obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda,” a spokesman said then.

The White House said in a letter to Kerner: “The report is based on numerous grave legal, factual and procedural errors.” The White House said the special counsel's “overbroad and unsupported interpretation of the Hatch Act risks violating Ms. Conway's First Amendment rights and chills the free speech of all government employees.”

“Worst of all, OSC's 'call' upon the president to 'remove Ms. Conway from her federal position immediately' is as outrageous as it is unprecedented,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said in the letter. “OSC's overreaching recommendation is wholly unsupported by any statute or the Constitution.”

Conway is married to George Conway, of counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and stalwart critic of the Trump administration. George Conway tweets and writes often in disdain of the president, calling him unfit for office.

On Wednesday, George Conway teamed up with Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal to publish an op-ed at The Washington Post that excoriated Trump's arguments against a U.S. House subpoena that seeks financial records from his accounting firm. “The idea that only the president can investigate the president is an argument for autocrats, not Americans,” the two lawyers wrote.

Kerner is a former aide to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain on the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, and he earlier served as vice president for investigations at the conservative Cause of Action Institute before the Trump administration nominated him to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

 

The Office of Special Counsel Report is posted below:

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Read more:

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Kellyanne Conway Should be Disciplined for Ethics Violation, Agency Tells Trump

Trump's Morgan Lewis Tax Lawyer Faces House Scrutiny

Stefan Passantino Punches Back Against Ethics Allegations

 

This post was updated with comment from the White House.