October 16, 2020
BY EMAIL & U.S. MAIL
Special Counsel Henry Kerner
Attn: Hatch Act Unit
U.S. Office of Special Counsel
1730 M Street, NW, Suite 218
Washington, DC 20036-4505
hatchact@osc.gov

Acting Inspector General
Matthew S. Klimow
Office of Inspector General
U.S. Department of State
SA-39
1700 North Moore Street
Arlington, VA 22209

Acting Legal Adviser Marik String
Office of the Legal Adviser
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
HST, Room 6421, Washington, DC, 20520
legal-fo-support-dl@state.gov
Re:

Request for Investigation of Orders or Directives Secretary Pompeo
May Have Given in Violation of the Hatch Act and for Appropriate
Remedial Action

Dear Special Counsel Kerner, Acting Inspector General Klimow, & Acting Legal
Adviser String:
American Oversight respectfully requests that you promptly investigate whether
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered any U.S. Department of State (State)
employees to take action “for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of”
the upcoming U.S. election in violation of the Hatch Act,1 and that you take prompt
action to ensure any such unlawful orders are rescinded or countermanded.
On October 8, 2020, President Donald J. Trump, a candidate in this year’s fastapproaching presidential election, publicly criticized Secretary Pompeo for not ensuring
that the emails of President Trump’s former political opponent (and a prominent
member of an opposing political party), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were
released.2 The next day, Secretary Pompeo said that State would work to release more
information from former Secretary Clinton’s emails “before the election,”3 strongly
5 U.S.C. §7323.
Jennifer Hansler, Pompeo Says He Will Release Clinton Emails Following Trump Criticism,
CNN (Oct. 10, 2020, 7:10 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/09/politics/pompeoclinton-emails/index.html.
3 Katherine Fung, Mike Pompeo Tells Fox News He Has Hillary Clinton’s Emails, Will
Release Them Before Election Day, Newsweek (Oct. 9, 2020, 3:48 PM),
https://www.newsweek.com/mike-pompeo-tells-fox-news-he-has-hillary-clintonsemails-will-release-them-before-election-day-1537947.
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1030 15th Street NW, Suite B255, Washington, DC 20005   AmericanOversight.org

 suggesting the intent of his efforts to release the information was to affect the fastapproaching election. Secretary Pompeo’s statement tying the release of information
specifically to election day is ample evidence that he unlawfully issued directives with
the intent to affect the outcome of an election. On its own, this statement warrants an
investigation of whether Secretary Pompeo has given directives or orders to State
employees in violation of the Hatch Act.
Additional context, however, further demonstrates the unlawfulness of his actions.
First, Secretary Pompeo’s commitment to release this information in mere weeks stands
in stark contrast to State’s recent representations to federal courts regarding its ability
to timely produce other records subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For
months, State has consistently maintained that it is largely unable to process public
records for release, particularly those records that may contain classified information. In
numerous recent court filings, State has represented that it is merely “working towards
resuming FOIA processing,” and that there is “no quick and easy solution” to the
difficulties that have prevented it from releasing records during the ongoing pandemic.4
Secretary Pompeo’s protest that “releasing emails for the sake of transparency can’t
possibly be a violation of the Hatch Act,”5 is untrue if he is specifically privileging the
release of certain records in order to affect the election, while State maintains it is
incapable of providing transparency in numerous other cases.
Second, Secretary Pompeo’s explanation of the supposed public importance of releasing
information in Secretary Clinton’s emails is nonsensical, providing further support that
his true motivation is an impermissible intent to affect the election. In a recent
interview, Secretary Pompeo complained that the problem with Secretary Clinton’s
emails is that they contained classified information and had been housed on an insecure
system. But Secretary Pompeo then quickly said that, nevertheless, State would work to
release that very classified information:
“[T]here was classified information on a private server
[that] should have never been there. Hillary Clinton should
never have done that . . . Russia, or China, or Iran, or the
North Koreans who want to get their hands on this kind of
information. Classified information needs to stay in the
right places. Secretary Clinton, when she was here at the
State Department, did not do that. . . .We’re going to get
this information out so the American people can see it.”6
Joint Status Report, American Oversight v. U.S. Dep’t of State, Case No. 18-cv-1321
(D.D.C. filed Oct. 5, 2020); see also Joint Status Report, American Oversight v. U.S. Dep’t
of State, Case No. 18-cv-2565 (D.D.C. filed Sept. 25, 2020); Joint Status Report, American
Oversight v. Central Intelligence Agency et al., Case No. 19-cv-2169 (D.D.C. filed Sept. 18,
2020).
5 Laura Kelly, Pompeo Denies Push for Clinton Emails Violates Hatch Act, The Hill (Oct. 14,
2020, 11:50 AM), https://thehill.com/policy/international/520993-pompeo-deniespush-for-clinton-emails-violates-hatch-act.
6 Caitlin Oprysko, Pompeo Says He’s Working to Release Clinton’s State Department Emails,
Politico (Oct. 9, 2020, 4:17 PM),
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 Accordingly, Secretary Pompeo is concerned that the improper storage of Secretary
Clinton’s classified emails made it possible for foreign adversaries to access them, yet is
himself willing to publicly release those same emails, thereby guaranteeing access to the
very same adversaries. As Secretary Pompeo has pointed out, the public interest is
served with respect to these records by preventing disclosure of classified information. In
this context, the inescapable conclusion is that Secretary Pompeo’s efforts to ensure the
release of information in the emails of one of the president’s former political opponents
are motivated by an intent to affect the election rather than a desire to serve the public’s
interest in transparency.
Your respective offices should promptly: (1) undertake investigations to determine
whether Secretary Pompeo has ordered any State personnel to take action to release
information before election day, (2) determine whether any such order was unlawfully
motivated by an intent to affect the outcome of the election, and (3) take remedial action,
directing State personnel subject to any such unlawful order that any order or directive
they have received designed to affect the election is illegal and may not be followed.
Given that the election is less than three weeks away, American Oversight urges you to
take rapid action to prevent the irreparable harm that could result from any unlawful
directives Secretary Pompeo may have issued.
Thank you for your consideration of this urgent and important matter. If you have any
questions or concerns, please contact Dan McGrath at (202) 897-4213 or
daniel.mcgrath@americanoversight.org.
Sincerely,

Melanie Sloan
Senior Advisor
American Oversight

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/09/pompeo-hillary-clinton-emails-428392
(quotes contained in embedded video of interview).
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