Trump didn't violate Hatch Act but violated govt running norms: Top lawyer

On Donald Trump delivering his acceptance speech from the White House for re-nomination as Republican presidential candidate, Dr Surat Singh, a top lawyer, told senior journalist Aroonim Bhuyan that the incumbent US President may not have violated the Hatch Act, but is guilty of violating norms of running the government.

New Delhi: Amid wide speculations about whether Donald Trump has violated the Hatch Act by delivering his acceptance speech from the White House for re-nomination as Republican candidate for this year's presidential election, a top Indian lawyer fully conversant with US laws has said that the incumbent President has technically not violated the Act but he is in violation of all norms of running the US government.

"Well, since he (Trump) is the sitting president, technically he has not violated the Act," Dr Surat Singh, Harvard-educated Supreme Court lawyer and a contemporary of former US President Barack Obama in Harvard Law School, told ETV Bharat.

Dr Singh said that one also has to take into account the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that demands social distancing for Trump resorting to this move.

Trump's acceptance on Thursday night came during a speech from the White House South Lawn on the last day of the ongoing Republican National Convention (RNC).

The Hatch Act of 1939, An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a US federal law. Its main provision prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity. It became law on August 2, 1939. The law was named for Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico. It was most recently amended in 2012 under then President Obama.

Read:Decoding Republican National Convention and Trump's speech

The US Office of Special Counsel states: "The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of individuals principally employed by state, District of Columbia, or local executive agencies and who work in connection with programmes financed in whole or in part by federal loans or grants. Usually, employment with a state, D.C., or local agency constitutes the principal employment of the employee in question. However, when an employee holds two or more jobs, principal employment is generally deemed to be that job which accounts for the most work time and the most earned income."

Though Trump was technically not wrong in making the acceptance speech from the White House, critics are of the view that he was ethically wrong in making official acts part of the RNC.

On Tuesday, the second day of the four-day convention of the Grand Old Party, Trump used the broadcast to reveal that he had given a full pardon to Jon Ponder, an African American man who started a rehabilitation programme for prisoners after he was released from prison.

The President also held a naturalisation ceremony for five new citizens, all people of colour, including an Indian American.

"The Hatch Act was the wall standing between the government's might and candidates. Tonight a candidate tore down that wall and wielded power for his own campaign," tweeted Walter Shaub, the former head of the US Office of Government Ethics. Shaub left the office in 2017 after clashing with the Trump administration over the President's failure to divest from his businesses.

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Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also appeared at the convention from Jerusalem, where he was on official state business, to make a campaign speech prompting Richard Haass, a long-time president of the Council on Foreign Relations who has served in several Republican administrations, to tweet: "A presumption of continuity in US foreign policy is essential if allies are to trust us & adversaries respect us. Politicizing foreign policy increases the chance of wild swings & undermining bipartisan support. @SecPompeo decision to speak at #RNC2020 ill-advised and then some."

According to Dr Singh, Trump may not have violated the Hatch Act, but he is guilty of violating norms of running the US government.

"He (Trump) has tried to run the country by tweets, which is in violation of all historical norms of running the US government," Dr Singh said.

"He has ignored the chief health officer regarding the coronavirus and allowed his personal opinion over scientific opinion in such an important matter of life and death."

Dr Singh also added that "American moral leadership, which Obama provided, had declined sharply under Trump's administration."

Read:Why Trump will lose the 2020 US presidential election