{"id":1916701,"date":"2023-04-19T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-biden-administration-official-violated-federal-law-special-counsel\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:32:06","slug":"top-biden-administration-official-violated-federal-law-special-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-biden-administration-official-violated-federal-law-special-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Biden Administration Official Violated Federal Law: Special Counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-biden-administration-official-violated-federal-law-special-counsel%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916701&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0419\/af52a93c-6918-42c5-bb65-b053c4ebe729\/audio.mp3?length=3131757&#038;duration=261\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>A member of President Joe Biden\u2019s Cabinet violated a federal law when he endorsed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), according to a new watchdog report.<\/p>\n<p>Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, formerly California\u2019s attorney general, violated a law called the Hatch Act on Sept. 15, 2022, the Office of Special Counsel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23783436-osc-report-on-becerra-violation\">said on April 18<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Becerra, appointed by Biden, was speaking in his official capacity at\u00a0the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Annual Awards Gala when he expressed support for Padilla\u2019s reelection bid, the watchdog said.<\/p>\n<p>The Hatch Act bars individuals in executive agencies from using their official authority or influence \u201cfor the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Becerra was clearly acting in his official capacity when he attended the gala, the special counsel said. Evidence includes his prepared remarks being reviewed by an attorney in the Department of Health and Human Services Ethics Division, being introduced with his official title, and his discussing in his speech the work of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause he was acting in his official capacity at the event, the Hatch Act prohibited Secretary Becerra from promoting or opposing candidates for partisan political office, like Senator Padilla,\u201d the watchdog said.<\/p>\n<p>But Becerra not only said he was proud to have Padilla representing him as a California resident, but said he would be voting for Padilla in the then-upcoming election.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Should Have Known\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Becerra \u201cshould have known\u201d that what he did was prohibited because he has undergone \u201ccomprehensive training\u201d on the Hatch Act, including viewing a presentation from White House lawyers just three months before the gala, the Office of Special Counsel said.<\/p>\n<p>The materials in the training included the statement that \u201cpolitical remarks must be distinct from official remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attendees were warned that they \u201cmay not encourage support for a candidate\u00a0for a candidate or remind attendees to vote for a particular candidate or group in an election\u201d or \u201cdiscuss candidates, elections, or partisan groups.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Becerra could have also accessed information about the Hatch Act before the gala, the watchdog said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis statement was so obviously concerning that a member of his own staff, present at the Gala, gasped and said, \u2018no, no, you can\u2019t say that\u2019 immedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A member of President Joe Biden\u2019s Cabinet violated a federal law when he endorsed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), according to a new watchdog report. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, formerly California\u2019s attorney general, violated a law called the Hatch Act on Sept. 15, 2022, the Office of Special Counsel said on April 18. Becerra, appointed by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":1916702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4106,3620,9130,3974,6547,4808,7262,10458],"class_list":["post-1916701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-administration","tag-biden","tag-counsel","tag-federal","tag-law","tag-official","tag-special","tag-violated"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}