Trump’s Favorite Spokesholes (Sarah S. & Kellyanne C.) Silenced By Controversy (#GotBitcoin?)

Ms. Conway, according to a report by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a permanent office of investigators and prosecutors, “appeared in her official capacity” to discuss an Alabama special election in two television interviews leading up to the December vote. The report found that she promoted the candidacy of Republican Roy Moore and opposed Democrat Doug Jones, violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by federal employees in their official capacity.

“While the Hatch Act allows federal employees to express their views about candidates and political issues as private citizens, it restricts employees from using their official government positions for partisan political purposes, including by trying to influence partisan elections,” the report said. It added that Ms. Conway, who it said didn’t respond to inquiries, “impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates.”

The consequences for Hatch Act violations can include a civil penalty of as much as $1,000, suspension or termination. The special counsel’s letter to the White House doesn’t recommend a specific penalty.

“Kellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate,” said Hogan Gidley, the White House deputy press secretary. “She simply expressed the president’s obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda. In fact, Kellyanne’s statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act—as she twice declined to respond to the host’s specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican.”

In a Nov. 20 interview on Fox News, Ms. Conway said of Mr. Jones: “He’ll be a vote against tax cuts. He’s weak on crime, weak on borders. He’s strong on raising your taxes. He’s terrible for property owners. And Doug Jones is a doctrinaire liberal which is why he’s not saying anything and the media are trying to boost him.”

When the host asked Ms. Conway, “So vote Roy Moore?”, she said: “I’m telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through.”

The Office of Special Counsel said this interview amounted to advocating against Mr. Jones and an “implied endorsement” of Mr. Moore. In a later CNN interview, on Dec. 6, Ms. Conway “advocated for the defeat of one Senate candidate and the election of another candidate,” the report said.

The OSC began its investigation after the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington group that has been critical of the Trump administration’s approach to ethics, filed complaints about the TV appearances.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, urged Mr. Trump to “take swift and serious disciplinary action against Ms. Conway.”

“Anything else sets a terrible example,” he said in a statement.

Earlier last year, Ms. Conway was “counseled” by the White House for promoting Ivanka Trump’s fashion line during a live television appearance from the White House press briefing room.

Ms. Conway said during a morning interview with Fox News in February 2017 that people should “go buy Ivanka’s stuff” and that she was giving the fashion line “a free commercial here.” Those remarks were an apparent violation of a rule against federal employees—other than the president and vice president—using their office “for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”

Sean Spicer, then the White House press secretary, didn’t explain what Ms. Conway’s counseling entailed.

Ms. Conway is a polling expert who became Mr. Trump’s campaign manager in the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

She isn’t the only White House officials to run afoul of the Hatch Act.

Last June, the Office of the Special Counsel reprimanded White House social-media director Dan Scavino for what it said was a Hatch Act violation. In that case, Mr. Scavino used Twitter to call for the defeat of Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican often critical of Mr. Trump.

“Mr. Scavino has been advised that if in the future he engages in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law,” the counsel’s office wrote, responding to a liberal-funded watchdog that had complained about the tweet.

The OSC also reprimanded United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley last fall for violating the Hatch Act, which dates to the 1930s. In that case, the office said Ms. Haley shouldn’t have retweeted a June message posted by Mr. Trump supporting Republican Ralph Norman, who went on to win a South Carolina congressional seat in a special election that month. Presidents and vice presidents are immune from violating the Hatch Act. Trump’s Favorite Spokesholes (Sarah, Trump’s Favorite Spokesholes (Sarah, Trump’s Favorite Spokesholes (Sarah, Trump’s Favorite Spokesholes (Sarah