It’s a serious enough problem when Donald Trump publicly endorses investigations into his perceived political foes. But when the president’s targets actually become the subject of investigations, it’s far worse. NBC News reported:
Federal officials are investigating former special counsel Jack Smith after President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans have alleged that his investigations into then-candidate Trump amounted to illegal political activity. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, confirmed to NBC News on Saturday that it’s investigating Smith for alleged violations of the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits certain political activities by government officials.
Right off the bat, let’s not overlook the most glaring problem with these developments: There’s literally no evidence whatsoever of Smith engaging in any kind of wrongdoing. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Smith to serve as a special counsel in November 2022 — two years before the 2024 presidential election — at which point he oversaw the federal investigations into Trump.
The prosecutor proceeded to collect voluminous evidence, secure indictments and charge Trump with a great many felonies, but at no point did Smith engage in any partisan political activities, making the basis for such an investigation from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel absurd.
Just as notably, it seems rather obvious that this move against Smith is part of a larger partisan vendetta from a party that’s eager to retaliate against those who dared to try to hold Trump accountable for his alleged crimes. Indeed, it was Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a close White House ally, who requested that the OSC investigate Smith for “unprecedented interference in the 2024 election,” despite the complete lack of evidence pointing to any interference.
But even if we put these relevant angles aside, there’s a broader point that’s hanging overhead: Since when does the Trump administration care about alleged Hatch Act violations? I’m reminded of this New York Times report from nearly four years ago:
Thirteen of President Donald J. Trump’s most senior aides — including his son-in-law and his chief of staff — campaigned illegally for Mr. Trump’s re-election in violation of a law designed to prevent federal employees from abusing the power of their offices on behalf of candidates, a government watchdog agency said Tuesday. Henry Kerner, who heads the Office of Special Counsel, made the assertion in a withering report that followed a nearly yearlong investigation into ‘myriad’ violations of the law, known as the Hatch Act.
In a 63-page report, the Office of Special Counsel concluded, “Senior Trump administration officials chose to use their official authority not for the legitimate functions of the government, but to promote the re-election of President Trump in violation of the law.”
Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the Bush/Cheney White House, described Team Trump’s routine transgressions at the time as “disgusting” and “unprecedented in the history of the Hatch Act.” Painter added that the entire Trump administration, at the most senior levels, was “devoted to illegally using federal offices to promote the president’s political campaign.”
As Trump scandals go, this one was relatively easy to overlook, but what was striking about the Hatch Act controversies was the degree to which the Republican president’s operation broke the rules knowingly and shamelessly, expressing indifference to the ethics law and at times treating it as the punch-line to a joke.
The rules exist for a reason: The idea of taxpayer-funded political operations is at odds with the basic principles of good government. It’s why walls are supposed to exist between official and political duties — walls that have existed for decades to prevent abuses in administrations of both parties.
In Trump’s first term, those walls were torn down, and members of his White House team decided that rules and limits just didn’t apply to them. In Trump’s second term, as the former special counsel finds himself on a partisan enemies list, the public is apparently supposed to believe that Republicans have suddenly rediscovered their interest in ethics laws, while they target a former special counsel who was always careful to play by the rules.
No one should be fooled.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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