Until April of this year, April Sands was an attorney at the
Federal Elections Commission’s (FEC) Enforcement Division. That
division is responsible for enforcement of federal elections law
generally and is specifically charged with investigating “alleged
violations of the law” and well as making recommendations to the
FEC about “appropriate action to take with respect to apparent
violations.”
During her time at the FEC,
however, Sands sent out numerous tweets expressing support for
President Obama and other Democrats, opposing Republicans, and even
explicitly urging followers to donate to a Democratic
candidate.
In her tweets, sent from the handle @ReignOfApril, Sands
expressed an intense dislike of Republicans.
“I just don’t understand how anyone but straight white men can
vote Republican. What kind of delusional rhetorical does one use?”
she tweeted in July of 2012.
“If you’re still calling yourself a Republican after the
#WarOnWomen, their stated RNC platform, & Birtherism, you are
my enemy,” she wrote in August of the same year.
She noted her own donations, and pushed others to give as well.
“Our #POTUS’s birthday is August 4. He’ll be 51. I’m donating at
least $51 to give him the best birthday present ever: a second
term,” she said in a July 2012 tweet. “Donate to @clairecmc [the
Twitter handle of Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill]
today,” she tweeted the next month. “Romney is toast,” said a
message sent in September. “But POTUS can’t do it all on his own.
Don’t forget Congressional races. We need a Democratic sweep. Stay
focused.”
Sands is, of course, entitled to her political opinions,
whatever they are. But as an Executive Branch employee, she was
prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity while on
duty in a federal workplace. The Hatch Act, which places limits on
such activity, also makes it a crime for employees to solicit money
in connection with an election “while in any room or building
occupied in the discharge of official duties.”
Did Sands engage in criminal
activity? The FEC’s Office of Special Counsel and Inspector
General’s office investigated Sands’ behavior, and last April,
announced that she had resigned as part of a settlement agreement.
Sands admitted to conducting political activity, including
fundraising, on Twitter, and also to taking part in a political
discussion using a webcam while in an FEC conference room. She was
on duty at the time.
But
as a letter from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell
Issa (R-Ca.) and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Jim
Jordan (R-Oh.) notes, the investigation stopped short of pursuing
criminal charges.
According to the letter, which provided background on Sands and
copies of her tweets, Sands computer hard drive was recycled. Its
records were wiped before the FEC’s Inspector General could get
access to it.
“The bias exhibited [by Sands’ tweets] is striking,” the letter
says, “especially for an attorney charged with the responsibility
to enforce federal election laws fairly and dispassionately.” The
letter requests comprehensive information explaining how the FEC
managed to let Sands’ hard drive be recycled.
The odd kicker to the story: Prior to 2001, long before the
tweets were sent, Sand worked at the FEC under the supervision of
Lois Lerner, who for the last year has been at the center of an
ongoing congressional investigation into possible targeting of
conservative non-profit groups by the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS). Lerner headed the IRS office in charge of tax exemptions,
but has indicated that many of her emails during the time frame
under investigation cannot be produced for congressional
investigators. Her hard drive crashed less than two weeks after the
House sent its first letter investigating scrutiny of non-profit
groups, and it could not be restored, preventing investigators from
accessing its contents.
There is no direct connection between the recycling of Sands’
hard drive and Lerner’s conveniently timed crash. But, especially
when combined with the fact that six other IRS employees have
apparently also lost record, at least one because of another
computer crash, it does appear that federal employees are having a
remarkably difficult time maintaining electronic records that might
be useful to investigators.
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