Government Executive quoted Shareholder Laura Nagel in a recent article, “Good government group alleges Commerce secretary violated federal ethics law.” During an interview on Fox Business, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick discouraged New Yorkers from voting for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. Just two weeks later, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit alleging that Secretary Lutnick violated the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act is a federal law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity in their official capacity.
Reporter Sean Michael Newhouse interviewed Nagel, who began her career as a public defender in New York City, about the allegation:
…Laura Nagel, a federal and private employment attorney with Alan Lescht and Associates, likened the complaint against Lutnick to a 2016 interview by then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, where he discussed his support for then-presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, that OSC determined violated the Hatch Act.
“OSC found that Secretary Castro’s comments were made in his official capacity even though he said he was ‘taking off my HUD hat for a second and just speaking individually’ because the interviewer used his secretary title throughout the interview, he appeared in a HUD facility with HUD’s seal behind him and he spent a substantial portion of the interview discussing HUD objectives,” Nagel said by email to Government Executive. “To determine whether Secretary Lutnick’s statement violated the Hatch Act, similar factors should be considered, such as whether he used his official title, the overall context and content of the statements or interview and the location of the interview.”
At the time, Castro said that he thought his disclaimer that he was sharing his personal opinion was in compliance with the Hatch Act and that “when an error is made — even an inadvertent one — the error should be acknowledged.”
Read the complete article on the Government Executive website.
