Shared from the 6/27/2019 Houston Chronicle eEdition

House panel votes to subpoena Conway

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Tom Brenner / New York Times

The House Oversight and Ethics committee on Wednesday voted to authorize a subpoena for White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after she failed to show up for her hearing on Hatch Act violations.

WASHINGTON — AHouse committee voted Wednesday to authorize a subpoena for White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after she failed to show for a hearing on a government watchdog’s findings that she broke the law dozens of times.

The House Oversight Committee voted, 25 to 16, for the subpoena after special counsel Henry Kerner said she blatantly violated the Hatch Act, a law that bars federal employees from engaging in politics during work. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who has backed impeachment of President Donald Trump, was the only Republican to cross party lines and join Democrats, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel’s chairman.

“Ms. Conway’s egregious and repeated Hatch Act violations, combined with her unrepentant attitude, are unacceptable from any federal employee, let alone one in such a prominent position,” Kerner told the panel. “Her conduct hurts both federal employees, who may believe that senior officials can act with complete disregard for the Hatch Act, and the American people, who may question the nonpartisan operation of their government.”

White House lawyers on Monday rejected Oversight’s request for Conway to appear at the hearing, citing a bipartisan practice that West Wing officials do not testify to Congress while they still work in the administration.

Democrats, however, countered that the White House had no right to claim executive privilege or immunity for Conway because the alleged violations deal with her personal actions — not her duties advising the president or working in the West Wing. They accused the administration of stonewalling yet another House investigation.

It is unclear, however, what Democrats will do if Conway ignores the subpoena, which is expected to be issued soon. She could be held in criminal contempt of Congress.

The Hatch Act bars federal employees from engaging in political activity during work hours or on the job. But a report submitted to Trump earlier this month by the Office of Special Counsel — which a Trump appointee runs — found that Conway violated that law on numerous occasions by “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media.”

It recommended that Trump terminate her federal employment. The president had indicated that he will not fire her.

Republicans derided the hearing as a political attack aimed at silencing one of Trump’s most loyal aides. Before her time in the White House, Conway helped run Trump’s campaign, helping him to victory in 2016. Since then, she has frequently appeared on television to defend Trump and attack his political opponents.

Kerner pushed back on the assertion that politics in any way influenced his decision.

“We’re trying to hold Ms. Conway to the same standard we hold other people in government to,” Kerner said Monday. “My staff came up with violations. They’re obvious. She says things that are campaign messages.”

The hearing created an awkward dynamic on the GOP side: Kerner is a former Oversight Committee staffer who worked for Republicans and spent years investigating former President Barack Obama.

But as Kerner returned as the Democrats’ star witness, Republicans immediately challenged his credibility. Top committee Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio argued that Kerner felt slighted by Conway and sought to punish her.

Kerner argued that he took the unprecedented step of recommending Conway’s firing because it was consistent with the treatment of nonpolitical appointees under the Merit Systems Protection Board, which enforces the law for other federal employees.

Before the vote, the hearing grew tense. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., argued that Democrats were trying to undermine free speech.

“We are better than this!” he exclaimed.

Cummings shot back with equal fire: “We have gotten to a point, sadly, where disobeying the law is okay.”

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