When furloughed workers’ out-of-office emails were overwritten with partisan messages by Team Trump at the start of the government shutdown, Donald Trump’s MAGA goons probably thought it was all a clever wheeze.
The president’s acolytes at the Office of Management and Budget are said to have pushed agencies—including Education, Labor, and Justice—to change auto-replies without consent, to blame “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown.
But now there are growing calls for hearings into whether they broke ethics rules or laws.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee’s top Democrat, Bobby Scott, has written to Republicans urging them to hold a hearing into the matter, accusing several federal agencies of taking “political actions in apparent violation of the Hatch Act.”
In a letter sent to Republican Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, obtained by ABC News, Scott condemned the out-of-office reply practice, saying that altering nonpartisan employees’ messages to “literally put political speech in their mouths is incredibly egregious.”
The Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments also posted website messages, labeling it a “Democrat-led” shutdown.
Scott’s letter urges the committee to examine whether government resources were used to distribute partisan scripts and whether any guidance originated beyond individual agencies.
Multiple employees at Education—overseen by secretary Linda McMahon—say their autoresponders were reset without consent to read, “Thank you for contacting me. Unfortunately Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”
ABC News reported that officials in multiple departments were encouraged to deploy blame-assigning autoresponses, with Education singled out by workers who say changes were implemented after staff had left for furlough. One staffer told ABC, “[I’m] so p—ed.”
The American Federation of Government Employees has sued the Education Department, alleging the government compelled first-person political speech in violation of workers’ First Amendment rights.
“Forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership’s partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees’ First Amendment rights,” the complaint argues.
At the time, Education Department officials defended the wording. “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond… Where’s the lie?” spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said in a statement.
The inbox controversy, however, was just one part of a broader shutdown-era trolling effort by the Trump administration.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt turned the White House comment line into a recorded political message, accusing opponents of prioritizing “illegal immigrants.”
“Hello, America, this is White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt…” the recording begins, before blaming the other side for the shutdown.
With the government shutdown now more than a week old, the legal fight and congressional scrutiny ensure the inbox edits—and who ordered them—won’t stay buried in the out-of-office pile.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Education, the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House for comment.
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