Conway, Pompeo among 13 Trump aides who campaigned illegally, federal probe finds

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel 45 was known to dictate what he wanted said in many press briefings.

..."“Based upon the Trump administration’s reaction to the violations, OSC concludes that the most logical inference is that the administration approved of these taxpayer-funded campaign activities. OSC further concludes that these violations likely would not have occurred had the Trump administration made clear to senior officials that they should act in accordance with the Hatch Act and that there would be consequences for violating it”.

Yawn. The Hatch Act was written primarily to protect federal employees from being required to perform political work on behalf of their bosses. A minor goal of the Hatch Act was also to avoid the use of federal government resources in support of political campaigns.

The notion of weaponizing the Hatch Act to criminalize routine and completely voluntary activities that don't actually cost the government anything beyond some of the employee's time, is relatively recent -- it is also a double-edged sword because such activities have long been common among political appointees and personal staff at the upper levels of government - throughout both political parties - and those "illegal" activities have occurred throughout the last several administrations and continue today in the Biden administration.