The Trump administration’s levying of political attacks on Democrats through federal agency websites and the out-of-office email messages of furloughed workers challenges the foundation of a nonpartisan civil service, a move that could deepen distrust in the government, according to experts and federal employees.
The deluge of messages blaming the “radical left” and Senate Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown that were shared across official channels serves as one of the most significant hits yet to the longstanding wall between federal workers and politics while they are on the job, historians said.
The messages immediately drew concerns that they may violate the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law intended to ensure that the federal work force operates free of political influence or coercion. Federal employees can engage in politics, but not while working.
“We have had lots of shutdowns,” said Don Kettl, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland who studies the civil service, but “never before have top officials tried to use their employees as human shields in the partisan battle.”
The political messages put federal employees in an untenable position, said Kevin Owen, a lawyer with Gilbert Employment Law, who has been representing fired federal workers this year.
“What is going on right now is running counter to the trainings that some of these employees have had for 15, 20 years,” Mr. Owen said. “It’s bedrock principles of the civil service.”
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