FINED & BARRED

Ex-Trump Official Lynne Patton Violated Hatch Act With Deceptive RNC Vids: OSC

HUD appointee Lynne Patton filmed a video purportedly about housing conditions in New York but it ended up being used at the Republican National Convention.

Lynne Patton, a Trump administration official who worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been fined $1,000 and barred from federal employment for two years for violating the Hatch Act. Patton, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters and formerly the party planner for Eric Trump’s wedding, filmed a video of New York City tenants talking about how bad New York’s federal housing was. But she later turned the video into a two-minute clip used to criticize Mayor Bill de Blasio at the Republican National Convention—to the horror of the Trump-hating tenants she interviewed.

As part of a settlement with the Office of Special Counsel, she agreed that she violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from using their job for political gain. Noah Bookbinder, president of the nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said: “Even in an administration marked by a callous disregard for ethics laws, Lynne Patton stood out.”