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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the you-scratch-my-back dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

Republican FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly broke a federal law preventing officials from advocating for political candidates when he told a crowd that one way to avoid policy changes was to "make sure that President Trump gets reelected," according to a newly released letter from government officials. O'Rielly was warned by the officials about making similar comments in the future.

The Hatch Act bars many federal employees from using their offices to influence an election. During the conservative CPAC conference in February, which was also attended by FCC chairman Ajit Pai, O'Rielly was asked about how to avoid rapid swings in policy ushered in by a new administration. "I think what we can do is make sure as conservatives that we elect good people to both the House, the Senate, and make sure that President Trump gets reelected," he responded, adding that there would also be a fight in the US Senate over net neutrality rules.

[...] The office said it has sent a warning letter to O'Rielly this time, but will consider other infractions "a willful and knowing violation of the law" that could lead to legal action.

O'Rielly's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the letter.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17308418/fcc-commissioner-orielly-trump-law


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Captival on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:54AM (10 children)

    by Captival (6866) on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:54AM (#676252)

    A guy that Trump put into office declared that he's in favor of him! This is so shocking. As Tolerant Liberals, we know that this is completely unacceptable and that everyone involved should be impeached immediately. Everybody knows that when you have relationships that you keep secret, like, for example, when your Attorney General has a secret meeting off the record with the ex-President husband of a Secretary of State who is under FBI investigation, you just lie and say "we were just talking about grandkids!" Everybody knows this is a lie but you can't actually prove otherwise so it doesn't account. The best part is when we get to pretend to act shocked and appalled when our opponents do the exact same thing. It's only okay when we do it.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:59AM (#676253)

    "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" - Incoming responses.

  • (Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:18AM (#676275)

    > A guy that Trump put into office declared that he's in favor of him! This is so shocking. As Tolerant Liberals, we know that this is completely unacceptable and that everyone involved should be impeached immediately.

    Yeah, it's not like there is a law against it. Oh, wait.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:30AM (1 child)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Sunday May 06 2018, @06:30AM (#676278) Journal

    Well, the Royal We here wonders how many Democratic-appointed FCC Commissioners you will find who advocated openly and actively in their public capacities for Obama's reelection (or Hillary's election)? Or other policy-level officials who openly advocate for the person who appointed them to be re-elected? And should you find someone, how were they disciplined?

    While I'm waiting for you to turn up a case... Why do you feel it is acceptable for someone to reach the post of FCC Commissioner but not learn something like this that others don't seem to know? Once appointed they don't work for Trump, they work for the people of the United States. ALL of us, including those who feel that Trump should in fact be impeached. If the commissioner doesn't know something as basic as that, then should that person not resign?

    --
    This sig for rent.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:01AM (#676311)

      Were I to break a law, ignorant of it or not, I'm sure I would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Ignorance no defense. It seems that persons in office just get a warning or, if the wait long enough, either they receive a pardon or the law is retrospectively changed so the offence becomes part or their job description.

      No one above the law, but if you own the legal system that's no impediment.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by fritsd on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:05AM (5 children)

    by fritsd (4586) on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:05AM (#676286) Journal

    You should be loyal to an absolute monarch or a maffia don, not to a president.

    Clearly this difference is no longer taught in schools.

    Do you know, what junior minister Angela Merkel did to her mentor and bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl, when she discovered a corruption scandal [wikipedia.org]?

    She stabbed him in the back.

    Nobody blinked. Business as usual. She was loyal to Germany by not playing along with him.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:34AM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:34AM (#676290)

      She doesn't even want to be seen with the flag. When handed one in public, she quickly handed it off in a very unpatriotic way, as if disposing of trash.

      She cares more about the EU, but she doesn't care much about that either. She is busy wiping out western civilization in Europe. It is going to end with another big war and genocide, and I fear the imported savages will win this time. Europe has been struggling against Islamic invasion for over a dozen centuries.

      Germany wreaked Europe twice in the 1900s. Here we go again.

      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:57AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:57AM (#676326)

        I'm not sure who you think is more savage in that comparison, but to be clear, when the coming war in Europe is over, Islam is going to be dead in the whole of Europe, and back to the stone age in any other area that pokes a finger in.
        For the last 1000 years Europeans have repulsed Islamic attacks more as an entertaining diversion from their wars with each other than as serious business. When they get serious, Islam is toast.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @08:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @08:30PM (#676438)

          I doubt that there is a "war with Islam" brewing in Europe, and I welcome all peaceful immigrants. I there is ever any aggression, however, your comment will be spot on. We Europeans can be pretty nasty. Sure, the Middle East is in chaos, but they've yet to start even one world war... while the European Union exists solely to stop us from igniting one for the third time.

          -- Signed, citizen of a European country that spent half of it's 1000+ year history fighting the Ottoman Empire.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:34PM (#676461)

        I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but you are woefully ignorant of any culture outside the dreadful midwest US shithole you live in.

        In civilized nations leaders who wrap themselves in the flag and go full-on nationalist are likely to be punished at the polls, which is why in the civilized world politicians don't do it.

        Of course, in the civilized world there are more than two choices at the ballot, so we are used to thinking about shades of grey when we vote, rather than good old American dualism.

        Yes, yes, I know. If we don't do it your way we will wind up living in Venezuela.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @01:49AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @01:49AM (#676528)

          No, you’ll end up living in an Islamic state, but you’re too pridefully blind to notice.