Navy secretary violated Hatch Act by endorsing Biden for reelection, watchdog finds

(CNN) — Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro violated the Hatch Act when he endorsed President Joe Biden while overseas in January, the Office of the Special Counsel found.

While speaking in his official capacity at an event at the Royal United Services Institute in the United Kingdom, Del Toro said, “The United Sates and the world need the mature leadership of President Biden,” according to OSC. Del Toro went on to say, “We cannot afford to have a president who aligns himself with autocratic dictators and rules whose interpretation of democratic principles is suspicious [at] best.”

The Hatch Act is a federal law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty or acting in an official capacity.

In a subsequent television interview with the BBC, Del Toro said he had a “strong conviction” that Biden “has provided the mature leadership, both in the United States and stabilizing our economy, which was faced by many challenges early as he took office.”

Del Toro then went on to question whether former President Donald Trump “abided by the core values of our country, protecting the freedoms of Americans and other people around the globe and protecting democracy itself. And when you have someone who doesn’t align to those core principles, it makes you wonder, you know, should you be supporting that individual?”

In a letter addressed to the president, Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger wrote that Del Toro “impermissibly asserted his personal political campaign views during official agency business.”

But in a response to OSC, a lawyer for Del Toro argued that the secretary’s comments were “spontaneous and unpremeditated” with a limited American audience and therefore did not violate the Hatch Act.

The Office of the Special Counsel is an independent organization within the federal government whose job is in part to enforce the Hatch Act and investigate alleged violations.

CNN has reached out to the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of the Navy for comment.

Since the beginning of the Biden administration, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made it clear how important it is to keep the military outside of politics. In one of his earliest news conferences, Austin said, “It’s really important to me that this department remain apolitical. We’re going to do everything within our power to make sure that our troops, our leadership - both civilian and military - remain focused on the task at hand and understand that they are not a part of the political apparatus there.”

Asked about the OSC findings, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh stressed the importance keeping the military outside of politics. At a news briefing on Thursday, Singh said it’s important to “maintain the trust and confidence of the American people, which requires us to avoid any action that could imply the support of any political party, candidate or campaign.”

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