White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino is in hot water after the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) stated he had broken federal law in calling for a primary challenge against Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI).
Scavino is said to have violated the Hatch Act, which limits the ability of certain federal employees to engage in political activity, when he tweeted in April: “Donald Trump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. Justin Amash is a big liability. Trump Train, defeat him in primary.” The reason for this is linked to Scavino’s display of the presidential seal in his Twitter cover photo.
The OSC said: “Mr. Scavino has been advised that if in the future he engages in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law.”
The libertarian-leaning Amash has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration in Congress, a sharp contrast to other prominent libertarian Republican figures such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), both of whom have strongly backed the President. Amash refused to endorse Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2016, and in May, Amash even joined moderate Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) in calling for an investigation over a controversial memo by fired FBI Director James Comey. The memo had suggested the President sought to interfere in the Flynn investigation, something which was easily disproved by Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) during Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee as a gross misinterpretation of Trump’s remarks to Comey.
Sources in Michigan Republican circles told The Liberty Conservative that there is growing discontent towards Justin Amash among anti-establishment grassroots activists in Michigan. Many of these activists had supported Amash during the Tea Party wave of 2010, but had since aligned themselves with Trump, who won a surprise victory in Michigan during last year’s presidential election. It is said that the backlash has been so significant that there is now an effort underway to “sink” the Congressman. Although a primary challenger has not emerged thus far, it seems almost inevitable Amash will face the fight of his lifetime during the primary race for Michigan’s 3rd district next year.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Rep. Curbelo supports President Trump’s impeachment. The Congressman supports an investigation into Russia’s involvement in the US election and appropriate legal action but does not support a targeted investigation into the President nor impeachment at this time.
Interesting that @justinamash finally came around and voted w/ @POTUS on statist fed gov-dictated healthcare, eh?
This article has it pretty backwards:
“The libertarian-leaning Amash has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration in Congress, a sharp contrast to other prominent libertarian Republican figures such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), both of whom have strongly backed the President.”
I like all three of them, but it was actually Amash who voted FOR SwampCare. Massie voted against and Senator Paul says he will vote against.
Amash had his reasons. I don’t find them persuasive but hey, I didn’t get elected to Congress.
https://libertarianvindicator.com/2017/05/06/update-justin-amash-releases-statement-on-ahca-vote/