Top White House spokespeople fail to comply with law limiting engagement in elections

Top White House spokespeople failed to comply with a law intended to prevent federal employees from using their offices to influence elections after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was warned against using "MAGA" to describe certain Republicans, a government watchdog agency said.

Report informs that in a letter first shared with NBC News, the independent Office of Special Counsel said that Jean-Pierre and deputy press secretary Andrew Bates took actions "contrary" to official guidance on adhering to the Hatch Act when they slammed “MAGA” Republicans’ budget plan this year — days after Jean-Pierre was told she had violated the 1939 statute.

The OSC issued government-wide guidance over the summer that deemed the use of “MAGA” and similar terms effectively off-limits as campaign-related slogans after determining that Jean-Pierre was in violation of the Hatch Act when she repeatedly referred to “mega MAGA Republicans” in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. “MAGA” is the campaign slogan for former President Donald Trump in his current White House bid.

A week after NBC News published the OSC's warning to Jean-Pierre in June, she issued a statement criticizing Republicans’ “hardcore MAGA” budget, while Bates, in a memo, went after “MAGA tax welfare.”