Legal experts and politicians are questioning the Biden White House’s effort to hide behind the Hatch Act. It is using it to dodge questions as to whether or not President Joe Biden or his family will be investigated in connection with the bag of cocaine discovered in the executive mansion.
Trump Accuses the Bidens of Cocaine Use
“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden. But watch, the Fake News Media will soon start saying that the amount found was “very small,” & it wasn’t really COCAINE, but rather common ground up Aspirin, & the story will vanish …” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
White House Dodges Trump Attack
A reporter asked during a private gaggle-only press conference: “Former President Trump has made some wild posts recently on social media, one of them was that the cocaine found in the White House was, had belonged to either the president or his son. Are you willing to say that that’s not the case, that they don’t belong to them?”
“I don’t have a response to that, because we have to be careful about the Hatch Act,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told reporters when questioned on the matter. “What I will say is that I have noticed there does seem to be some increasing frustration coming from that corner in general, and I think it is probably rooted in the contrast between their substantive policy records.”
The Hatch Act bars Executive Branch employees from engaging in political activities, but it does not cover the use of illegal drugs inside the White House. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was found to have run afoul of the law last year when she talked about “mega MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law” in her official capacity.
Hatch Act Invocation Out of Bounds
Former White House counselor Kelly Anne Conway was found by the Office of Special Counsel to have violated the Hatch Act several times in 2019. Conway engaged in partisan attacks on Democratic candidates including accusing Sen. Elizabeth Warren of lying about her Native American ancestry.
National Security Attorney Brad Moss told Fox News Digital he was befuddled by the invocation.
“I could envision other legitimate bases for declining to respond, such as respecting the integrity of the ongoing investigation, but references to the Hatch Act seem misplaced,” Moss said.
Former Bush administration ethics chief Richard Painter agrees.
“What the —— does the Hatch Act have to do with cocaine?” Painter told Fox News Digital in an email. “This is the most ridiculous invocation of the Hatch act I’ve ever heard.”
Biden congressional critic Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., insinuated on Twitter that a coverup could be in the works.
“How does the Hatch Act apply to discussing who the White House cocaine belongs to? They’re creating more questions than answers about this whole thing. Makes you wonder what they’re trying to *actually* distract us from,” Boebert said.
John Rossomando was a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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