In 2020, Dan Brouillette, then-President Donald Trump’s second energy secretary, allegedly violated the Hatch Act — the law that prevents public servants from campaigning for or supporting candidates for office, the special counsel said in a report this week.
Brouillette and 12 other Trump administration officials were implicated in the findings published Tuesday.
According to the report, Brouillette made statements opposing then-candidate Joe Biden’s platform during an official appearance on Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade Show in October 2020.
A former public servant found guilty of Hatch Act violations could be barred from serving in a public capacity for five years or fined up to $1,000.
Brouillette was appointed energy secretary in 2019, replacing former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who oversaw the Trump administration’s ill-fated attempt to restart the mothballed Yucca Mountain repository in Nye County, Nev.