Social Security email praising Trump may violate Hatch Act

Emails sent by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that praised President Trump may violate the Hatch Act , experts say.

“Under President Donald J. Trump, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is transforming into a model of excellence, one that meets and exceeds customer expectations for fast, accurate and secure service,” Frank Bisignano, SSA commissioner and IRS chief executive, wrote in one of the emails, according to The New York Times .

Praising the president just days before Tuesday’s midterms could be a violation of the 1939 law that restricts certain political activities by federal employees.

“Last year, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cuts, landmark legislation that ushered in a new era of tax relief and prevented the largest tax increase in American history from taking effect. Hardworking Americans like you are keeping more of what they earn because of President Trump’s historic tax cuts,” Bisignano wrote in another email, per the Times .

It also said the IRS “does not generally send e-mails to taxpayers,” and the email is “for informational purposes and does not constitute a communication about a taxpayer’s specific situation.”

Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told the Times that the emails did not seem to function as public service announcements, but rather “propaganda.”

This is not the first time the Trump administration has fielded allegations for violating the Hatch Act.

Watchdog groups have counted that at least nine of the president’s 16 cabinet members may have broken the law ahead of the midterms, NewsNation — The Hill’s sister organization — reports .

Democracy Defenders Fund and Reporters Without Borders filed a Hatch Act complaint over Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s appearances at an Alaska rally with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) last month .

“This administration keeps testing the boundaries of our democratic guardrails, and this is just the latest example,” Norman L. Eisen, executive chair and co-founder of Democracy Defenders Fund, said in a news release.

“There are laws about what political appointees can and cannot do. Appointees can’t just mix official and political activity, and they can’t lean on their official responsibilities to support a political candidate.”

The Hill has reached out to the SSA and IRS for comment.