Top Biden offi­cials like­ly vio­lat­ed key fed­er­al law, watch­dog says

Top offi­cials at the White House and Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion appear to have vio­lat­ed a fed­er­al law restrict­ing gov­ern­ment staffers from engag­ing in cer­tain polit­i­cal activ­i­ties, accord­ing to a watch­dog group.
Inter­nal emails obtained by Pro­tect the Public’s Trust, a group inves­ti­gat­ing appar­ent con­flicts of inter­est, show that both White House and SBA offi­cials have fre­quent­ly used offi­cial resources to com­mu­ni­cate about for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s cam­paign phrase “MAGA,” or Make Amer­i­ca Great Again. But under the Hatch Act, fed­er­al exec­u­tive branch employ­ees are barred from “using their offi­cial author­i­ty or influ­ence to inter­fere with or affect the result of an elec­tion,” the watch­dog wrote in a Thurs­day com­plaint sent to the White House, the SBA’s inspec­tor gen­er­al, and the U.S. Office of Spe­cial Coun­sel, a fed­er­al inves­tiga­tive and …