Enforcement agency expands Hatch Act probe

The independent Office of Special Counsel has expanded an investigation into possible Hatch Act violations at the General Services Administration to include officials across the entire executive branch in an effort to determine if partisan political activity may have occurred illegally in federal offices, an OSC spokesman said Tuesday.

The OSC, which is charged with enforcing the Hatch Act, is focusing on improper political presentations and e-mail exchanges that may have occurred in each Cabinet department and executive branch agency, much of it coordinated by White House operatives, including presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Rove's name already has emerged in the current probe of GSA, where a meeting at agency headquarters in January featured a PowerPoint presentation by Scott Jennings, deputy White House political affairs director under Rove. The presentation allegedly focused on Republican strategy for the 2008 election.

Fearing similar potential Hatch Act violations have occurred elsewhere in the government, OSC spokesman James Mitchell told CongressDaily Tuesday it would "be irresponsible for us not to look into other agencies."

He said the officials under review will include those who act as the White House liaison in each of the agencies as well as White House staff.

"We're not saying that something's happened; we're saying there's cause to look into this," Mitchell said, adding that details of the investigation still need to be worked out. "If it happened at the GSA, it could happen elsewhere."

The decision to expand the probe apparently was made before Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and 22 other Democratic senators and an Independent sent a letter to the White House Monday asking for information about inappropriate political activity at other government agencies.

In a response to the Los Angeles Times about the senators' letter, a White House spokesman said the Hatch Act did not prohibit providing informational briefings to government employees, calling the practice "entirely appropriate."

The OSC inquiry into possible Hatch Act violations across the government converges with another troublesome issue for the White House, as the OSC is already reviewing allegations of discrimination in the firing of one of the eight U.S. attorneys fired last year.

Earlier this month, David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, filed a claim with the OSC asserting that he was unfairly fired because of a long leave of absence he took to fulfill his military obligations as a Navy Reserve captain.

By law, the OSC also enforces for federal employees the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, which bars job discrimination against workers for their military obligations. "We're going to follow the trail and be prepared," Mitchell said about investigating the Iglesias claim.

The trail being reviewed at the GSA has already prompted Wyden and Dorgan to call for GSA Administrator Lurita Doan's resignation. It also brought a stern warning from House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who said allegations of Hatch Act violations at the agency will make the appropriations process for GSA very difficult.

"It's much more difficult to present an appropriations bill with the GSA in it if the president is under fire," Serrano said Tuesday after learning of the expanded OSC's investigation. "It's going to get worse before it gets better."

Unlike Wyden and Dorgan, Serrano stopped short of calling for the embattled Doan to step down. "If we really want to get to the bottom of this, someone needs to be around to answer the questions," he said.