House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa is asking President Barack Obama’s top lawyer for documents related to White House fundraising activities which the California Republican thinks may be against the law.
Specifically, Issa is highlighting meetings held at the White House back in March that were organized by the Democratic National Committee. One of the former Bush administration officials who testified at a hearing last month on the Hatch Act — the law restricting the political activities of federal employees — said that those meetings appeared to be in violation of the law.
Issa, Politico reports, is also criticizing a campaign video that appears to have been filmed at the White House, which some campaign law experts say violates the law. But a White House aide provided reporters with numerous examples of campaign videos that included footage shot at the White House, and another expert called the Obama video unseemly, but not illegal.
“We have an obligation to inquire into the activities of the now closed White House political office because these activities – some of them are continuing but they’re continuing less formally,” Issa told Jake Sherman. “It’s an ordinary oversight letter. In other words, we’re not saying, ‘You did terrible things.’ We’re saying, ‘We have indication of this, please explain,’ and that’s what the letter intends to do.”
Issa wants documents and communications related to the DNC event and the White House video turned over by July 26.
