What is the Hatch Act, how does one violate it and what are the penalties in place?

US President Donald Trump is facing accusations he has blurred the line between government and politics and overseen violations of a decades-old law designed to keep the two apart.

The controversy centres around the ongoing Republican National Convention, which has seen several key figures from Mr Trump's administration tread a thin line between partisan politics and occupying government office.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the convention with a prerecorded message he filmed during an official trip to Jerusalem earlier this week, while First Lady Melania Trump made her own convention speech from the recently redesigned White House Rose Garden.

Mr Trump himself meanwhile appeared on Tuesday night in two videos produced in part by the White House as he blended official acts and campaigning.

The president will appear again at the convention on Thursday to accept the Republican nomination from the White House's South Lawn. The event will be capped off by a fireworks display around the Washington Monument of the sort usually reserved for national holidays.

Opposition Democrat politicians have responded to this week's events by pointing to federal laws and regulations - namely the 1939 Hatch Act - that bar the use of government titles and resources for partisan political activities, and have accused the Trump administration of breaking the rules.

So, here's what you need to know:

What is the Hatch Act?

Established in the Great Depression era, the Hatch Act serves to separate the lines between public office and politics.

It is supposed to stop the federal government from affecting elections or going about its activities in a partisan manner. It also prohibits civil servants from using their titles when doing political work and taking part in any partisan activity while on the clock.

The president and the vice president are exempt from the rules.

A special body, The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), was set up alongside the law when it was introduced and is tasked with investigating and determining any violations of the act.

According to the OSC, the Hatch Act applies to federal employees as well as state and local employees who work with federally funded programs.

"The law’s purposes are 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.​​​​​," the OSC's website says of the law.

How does one violate it?

Complaints about violations of the Hatch Act are somewhat routine and Mr Trump's administration is hardly the first to mix business with politics.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama, for instance, allowed five members of his Cabinet to address the party’s 2012 convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, as he sought reelection.

Four years later, as his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, sought the White House, Mr Obama decided to prohibit Cabinet members from taking part.

Earlier this decade, in 2011, an OSC report found that during George W. Bush's tenure as President, senior staff members at the Office of Political Affairs violated the Hatch Act by organising dozens of political briefings from 2001 to 2007 for Republican appointees at top federal agencies in an effort to enlist them to help elect Republicans to Congress.

Mr Trump's administration has meanwhile repeatedly stepped over the line itself, according to ethics experts.

In November 2018, the OSC found six White House officials in violation for tweeting or retweeting the president’s 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” from their official Twitter accounts. Most notably, the office recommended in June 2019 that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway be fired.

Mr Trump refused to take action against Conway, suggesting that the office was trying to take away her right to free speech. Ms Conway, who announced this week she will be leaving the White House for personal reasons by the end of the month, is scheduled to deliver remarks to the convention on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, picking up on the latest controversies involving Mr Trump and White House officials, Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign criticised Mr Pompeo’s speech on Tuesday evening, saying the Secretary of State's decision to address the Republican convention from Jerusalem "isn’t just an abuse of taxpayer dollars, it undermines the critical work being done by the State Department".

Traditionally, the big four Cabinet members — the secretaries of state, defense, treasury and attorney general — have not attended party conventions.

Multiple officials involved in the planning process for the Republic Convention told the Associated Press that teams of lawyers from the White House, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee reviewed convention plans to avoid any Hatch Act violations, however.

What are the penalties for offenders?

The rule is a workplace guideline, and violating it is not a crime.

Responses can vary significantly after employees violate the rule, from a slap on the wrist to loss of a job.

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