Kellyanne Conway. Credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Updated 2:15 p.m.

Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, should face disciplinary action for using television appearances to promote the Republican candidate in Alabama's special U.S. Senate election last year, the U.S. government office tasked with enforcing restrictions on federal employees' political activity said Tuesday.

In a letter to Trump, special counsel Henry Kerner said that Conway violated the Hatch Act during appearances on Fox News and CNN, in which she spoke in support of Republican candidate Roy Moore and discouraged voters from supporting the eventual winner of the race, Democrat Doug Jones. The office said Conway was acting in her “official capacity” during those interviews and “impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election.”

“The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the outcome of an election,” Kerner wrote. “While federal employees may express their views about candidates as private citizens, the Hatch Act restricts employees from using their official government positions for partisan political purposes, including by influencing elections.”

Kerner said Conway was “aware of the Hatch Act's prohibitions when she chose during both interviews to repeatedly identify reasons why voters should support one candidate over another in the Alabama special election.”

The White House denied the special counsel's findings, saying Conway “did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate.”

“She simply expressed the president's obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda,” Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. “In fact, Kellyanne's statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act—as she twice declined to respond to the host's specific invitation to encourage Alabam[i]ans to vote for the Republican.”

According to Kerner's report, the White House counsel's office provided “brief explanations” for Conway's statements, contending her words “must be viewed through the prism of one whose job function was to provide commentary concerning the president's newsworthy reasoning for his position with respect to a nominee within his party, as well as the impact of the special election on his agenda.”

Conway did not respond to the office's questions, even after indicating in February that she planned to do so, the report said.

Kerner, a former aide to U.S. Sen. John McCain on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was 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.

Kerner's report said Conway had “significant knowledge” of the Hatch Act, having recently undergone formal ethics training. She also received guidance on the law from the White House Counsel's office in individual conversations, and “multiple written communications,” the report said.

The report does not specify or recommend how to reprimand Conway. The OSC referred decisions on “appropriate disciplinary action” to the president. Kerner could have recommended a penalty of up to $1,000, suspension or termination.

Conway was the subject of an unrelated attorney ethics complaint brought last year by a group of law professors. The complaint, which alleged Conway broke local D.C. attorney rules by allegedly making false statements to the public and media, was filed at the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

The comments at issue in that complaint included Conway's February 2017 references to the nonexistent “Bowling Green Massacre” on MSNBC. The complaint also noted that Conway appeared to endorse Ivanka Trump products on Fox News.

Cause of Action wrote to Walter Shaub, then the director of the Office of Government Ethics, last year concerning her comments about those products.

“We in no way endorse or approve of Ms. Conway's actions; however, that does not mean that they were illegal or in violation of your ethics rules,” wrote Cause of Action counsel Eric Bolinder. “We write today to petition OGE to initiate a rulemaking correcting or clarifying these regulations.”

The Office of Special Counsel last year cleared Richard Cordray, then the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, of allegations he improperly positioned himself to run in the Ohio governor's race while leading the federal agency. Cordray entered the gubernatorial race last year after stepping down as the CFPB director.

The Office of Special Counsel's findings are posted below:

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This post was updated to clarify the substance of a letter Cause of Action wrote to the Office of Government Ethics last year about certain remarks made by Kellyanne Conway.