--- title: Donald Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Election description: Dan Scavino has been reprimanded for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from interfering in campaign activities canonical: https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-09T18:16:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:21:39.628Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Primary Election og:description: The tweet violated the Hatch Act og:url: https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f2a820ffe5dc551/6988d10d7cdbac598cd58b50/dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4403 og:image:height: 2477 og:image:alt: dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Primary Election twitter:description: The tweet violated the Hatch Act twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f2a820ffe5dc551/6988d10d7cdbac598cd58b50/dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Primary Election > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 6:16 PM UTC  White House aide Dan Scavino listens and films as President Donald Trump speaks during an executive order signing ceremony regarding trade in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on March. 31, 2017. White House aide Dan Scavino listens and films as President Donald Trump speaks during an executive order signing ceremony regarding trade in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on March. 31, 2017. Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 6:16 PM UTC President Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino has been reprimanded for a tweet that violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from interfering in campaign activities. In [a letter](https://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/09153036/DOC060817-06082017170020.pdf) to watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which filed a complaint about one of Scavino’s tweets, the Office of Special Counsel wrote, “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 tweet in question is from April, when Scavino wrote, “@justinamash is a big liability. #TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.” > [](https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/848211792916557824) Justin Amash is a Republican congressman from Michigan, who has been a vocal critic of Trump. The purpose of the Hatch Act, passed in 1939, is to “ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to the Office of Special Counsel’s [website](https://osc.gov/Pages/HatchAct.aspx). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/"},"headline":"Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Primary Election","datePublished":"2017-06-09T18:16:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:21:39.628Z","description":"Dan Scavino has been reprimanded for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from interfering in campaign activities","url":"https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f2a820ffe5dc551/6988d10d7cdbac598cd58b50/dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f2a820ffe5dc551/6988d10d7cdbac598cd58b50/dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director","caption":"dan-scavino-violates-hatch-act-social-media-director","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4812958/dan-scavino-hatch-act-tweet/","name":"Trump Aide Reprimanded for Tweeting About Primary Election"}}]}] ```