US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel for potentially abusing his office in a speech from Jerusalem to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in August, two high-ranking Congress members said on Monday.
“Our offices have confirmed that the Office of Special Counsel has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations tied to Secretary Pompeo’s speech to the Republican National Convention,” the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations committees Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey said.
"Our offices have confirmed that the Office of Special Counsel has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations tied to Secretary Pompeo’s speech to the Republican National Convention."
— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) October 26, 2020
Chairs @RepEliotEngel and @NitaLowey on new OSC probe:https://t.co/rs2B96IFIB
The Office of Special Counsel is an independent US federal investigative and prosecutorial agency and is looking into Mr Pompeo's conduct for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of federal offices and resources for election purposes.
At issue is the speech that Mr Pompeo gave to the RNC from Jerusalem on August 26 while on an official State Department trip.
Mr Pompeo, the first secretary of state in recent history to address a political convention, defended the move and said he was acting in personal capacity without using State Department tax dollars.
Pompeo and Netanyahu meet in Jerusalem
But now with the special counsel investigation, Democrats are pointing to misuse of government money.
“Mike Pompeo has grown even more brazen in misusing the State Department and the taxpayer dollars that fund it as vehicles for the administration’s, and his own, political ambitions,” the two Congress members said.
This is special counsel 's second investigation into Mr Pompeo’s actions. On October 19, the office opened a case to address the complaint that American Oversight, a not-for-profit watchdog group, submitted regarding Mr Pompeo’s reported efforts to release the emails of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton before the election.
