‘Glaring violations’ of the Hatch Act by senior Trump officials have gone unpunished for months, good government group alleges

A good government group is asking a federal watchdog why it’s taking so long for officials to resolve Hatch Act complaints that the nonprofit has filed against senior political appointees in the Trump administration. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on Thursday sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces rules that govern the political activities of federal employees, contending that the agency has opened investigations into six senior officials, five of which have been pending for more than 10 months. 

Many of the Hatch Act complaints deal with comments made during media briefings and interviews by officials, such as outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, criticizing democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani when he was a candidate. 

Federal employees are not permitted to engage in political activity in their official capacity. For example, the OSC found that Biden Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley ran afoul of the Hatch Act when they criticized Donald Trump in media interviews ahead of the 2024 presidential election.   

“While we understand that financial constraints and abrupt leadership changes by President Trump have challenged law enforcement efforts at agencies including OSC, CREW’s outstanding complaints originate from public interviews and posts that are easily reviewed and assert glaring violations of the law,” wrote CREW President and CEO Donald Sherman. 

The organization argued that administration officials will continue to violate the Hatch Act until OSC resolves these complaints. For example, Sherman pointed to Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appearance at a campaign rally for a Republican running for New York governor. Public Citizen, another good government nonprofit, submitted a complaint about that speech earlier this week. 

An OSC spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that the agency “doesn’t comment on open cases.” 

Also on Thursday, OSC announced that it filed disciplinary complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board against two feds who, despite warnings, allegedly ran for partisan political office and solicited political contributions. Both activities are prohibited under the Hatch Act. 

Additionally, the agency touted at the end of last year that it resolved hundreds more Hatch Act complaints in fiscal 2025 than it did in fiscal 2024.  

But CREW said this points to a divergence in how potential Hatch Act violations are treated depending on the employee’s rank.  

“Ethical compliance cannot thrive in the federal government if the most politically powerful officials are allowed to skirt the law while their subordinates are punished for similar activity,” Sherman wrote. 

Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Charles Baldis, a former GOP Senate staffer, as special counsel, though he’s been leading the agency since spring 2025 as the designee of the former acting chief. 

During Trump’s first term, the OSC found that several officials, including White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, violated the Hatch Act.