Navy secretary broke law with Biden endorsement: Watchdog

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro violated a law limiting certain political activity of federal employees when he appeared to endorse President Biden for reelection and criticize former President Trump in January, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced on Thursday.

The OSC, an independent investigative federal agency, said in a report sent to Biden that Del Toro violated the Hatch Act — a law prohibiting political activity while a federal employee is on duty, in the federal workplace, or acting in an official capacity — when he suggested the American people should go vote for Biden at a January event in the U.K.

In the Jan. 25 event at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Del Toro said during a question-and-answer session that there was “deep concern” about the U.S taking an isolationist approach, making the comments as Trump and far-right Republicans in Congress have resisted supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“And I don’t say that kiddingly around, either. The United States and the world need the mature leadership of President Biden,” he said. “I did not support the president of the United States to become president, commander in chief, because I wanted a job. I supported him personally, because he is an individual of highest character.”

He added, “we cannot afford to have a president who aligns himself with autocratic dictators and rulers whose interpretation of democratic principles is suspicious [at] best.”

“I’m confident that the American people will step up to the plate come November and support President Biden for a second term as our commander in chief,” he said.

Special counsel Hampton Dellinger said in a statement that Del Toro was “speaking in his official capacity on a taxpayer-funded trip” when he “encouraged electoral support for one candidate over another in the upcoming presidential election.”

“By doing so, he crossed a legal line and violated the Hatch Act. This is especially troubling because Secretary Del Toro has himself acknowledged that military work and partisan politics should not be mixed,” Dellinger said.

Since Del Toro’s comments, Biden has dropped out of the race against Trump and endorsed Vice President Harris, who last month became the Democratic nominee.

In a BBC interview on Jan. 28, Del Toro expanded on his remarks, saying it was his “humble opinion that the United States deserves that continued leadership in the way of President Biden” and that he was concerned about electing “someone who doesn’t align to those core principles,” which could make the world “suffer.”

Del Toro self-reported the issue to the OSC in February and told the office that his remarks “should have been delivered more broadly without reference to specific candidates,” according to the Thursday report. But he also argued during the investigation that he did not specifically reference Trump and that his remarks appearing to endorse Biden were in reference to a statement of fact about his confidence in the president rather than encouraging individuals to vote for him.

The OSC report said Del Toro’s “explanation is not credible,” because his references to Trump were clear and his statements about Biden were clearly related to the election.

Del Toro responded through his lawyer, Michael Bromwich, in a letter included in the OSC report, that investigators ignored “the context in which the statements were made,” arguing he spoke to a U.K. audience, not the American public, and that “his purpose was to be responsive to questions asked by foreign reporters.”

Bromwich also argued that the remarks were “spontaneous and unscripted,” that the OSC took fragmented comments from the event and interview, and that the secretary’s purpose was to discuss his perspective on global issues.

“OSC’s finding of a Hatch Act violation is a mechanical and inappropriate application of the rules prohibiting the involvement of federal officials in political activities,” he wrote in the letter.

In his own letter to the White House on the report, Dellinger said the secretary’s “refusal to take responsibility for the violation is troubling.”

“Whether his statements were spontaneous or premeditated only bears on the penalty and not the finding of a violation,” he wrote.

“And the secretary’s response fails to substantively engage, much less contradict or otherwise explain away, the heart of OSC’s finding: that the Secretary, in his official capacity and on a taxpayer-supported trip, encouraged electoral support for one presidential candidate (you) over another.”