Ex-FEMA Worker Who Told Staff to Skip Homes With Trump Signs Violated Hatch Act, Agency Says

FEMA employees listen to President Joe Biden talk at FEMA headquarters in Washington on May 24, 2021. Evan Vucci/AP Photo

A former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee who issued a directive for FEMA workers not to inspect homes with Trump signs in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Florida violated the Hatch Act, according to a Feb. 11 complaint filed by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Marn'i Washington, who was terminated by FEMA’s then-director, has “violated the Hatch Act by engaging in political activity while on duty and using her official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the results of an election” by telling crew members not to visit properties with campaign signs supporting Donald Trump for President, the office said in a statement.

The complaint for disciplinary action was filed by the special counsel’s office against Washington because, it said, “the presence of a campaign sign is not a reason that FEMA personnel would or should avoid visiting a property.”

The Hatch Act is a federal law that prohibits political activity by federal workers, including barring workers from political activity while on duty, in a federal building or room, while wearing a government uniform or insignia, or while using a government vehicle. It also blocks certain political activities while off duty or through social media.

“One of Congress’s goals in passing the Hatch Act was to ensure that government programs are administered in a nonpartisan manner,“ Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger said in a statement. “OSC has determined this employee violated the Hatch Act by instructing subordinates to avoid homes with certain campaign signs. A federal employee clearly violates the Hatch Act by engaging in explicit partisan political bias or activity when on the job.”

In multiple interviews after being fired by FEMA late last year, Washington said she was made a scapegoat by FEMA managers and that officials had already been avoiding homes with Trump signs.

“This was the culture. They were already avoiding these homes, based on community trends, from hostile political encounters,” Washington told Fox News in November. “It has nothing to do with the campaign sign, it just so happened to be a part of the community trend.”

Washington also said the policy was handed down by higher-ups inside FEMA. Her claim was denied by the former FEMA director, Deanne Criswell.

Washington said the only reason why she was turned into a scapegoat was because she was caught doing it.

“Why is this coming down on me? I am the person that jotted down the notes from my superiors and my notation in [Microsoft] Teams chat was exposed from their search capacity team,” Washington said in the Fox interview.

Criswell said in November that Washington and reports of leaked text messages about the directive went against agency policy, confirming at the time that Washington was terminated.

“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” she wrote in a post on X last year. “This was reprehensible.”

The Office of Special Counsel filed the complaint as FEMA has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have both suggested that the agency be overhauled or dissolved in its current state.

On Tuesday, Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that “FEMA should be terminated” because it has been “slow and totally ineffective” in providing disaster relief aid while spending “tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry.”

He also repeated a statement that he believes individual states should handle their own disaster relief efforts to save money and improve efficiency.

In a visit to areas devastated by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina in late January, the president told reporters last month that he would move to overhaul FEMA and later signed an order establishing a council to assess the agency’s operations.