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Watchdog group accuses Ivanka Trump of violating Hatch Act on Twitter

By Nicholas Sakelaris
Adviser to the President and daughter Ivanka Trump has been accused of violating the Hatch Act with tweets that support her father, President Donald Trump. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI
Adviser to the President and daughter Ivanka Trump has been accused of violating the Hatch Act with tweets that support her father, President Donald Trump. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

June 20 (UPI) -- Days after a former Trump administration official was accused of violating the Hatch Act, a watchdog group accused Ivanka Trump of doing the same.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel Thursday claiming that Trump, daughter and adviser to President Donald Trump, sent a tweet that supported her father's 2020 presidential campaign.

CREW said Ivanka Trump has used her government Twitter account to retweet partisan political posts since March 2018. Last week, the Office of Special Counsel sent a letter to Donald Trump saying White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway should be fired for repeated violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from campaigning. Only the president and vice president are immune from the Hatch Act.

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Trump said he would not fire Conway and called the accusations against her an attempt to take away her right to free speech.

"It has become clear that this rampant abuse of public office is not a problem of 'one bad apple' but rather a key feature of the Trump White House," CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said. "By blatantly using her office for politics right after the Office of the Special Counsel recommended her colleague be fired for repeatedly acting similarly, Ivanka Trump has basically thumbed her nose at the OSC and the rule of law. Never before have we witnessed this level of illegal politicized behavior, and it must not be allowed to continue."

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