OSC Produced No Records Supporting Closure of Hegseth Hatch Act Complaint; The Steady State Appeals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 2, 2026

PDF AVAILABLE HERE

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) closed a Hatch Act complaint against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just one day after receiving it, and a subsequent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has produced no records showing how OSC reached that decision. The complaint was filed by The Steady State, a nonpartisan organization of more than 430 former national security officials, which today filed an administrative appeal challenging OSC’s response to its records request.

The Steady State filed the complaint on July 7, 2026, concerning Secretary Hegseth’s May 18, 2026 appearance and remarks at a campaign rally in Hebron, Kentucky, for U.S. House candidate Ed Gallrein. OSC’s complaint form is stamped as received July 7. OSC’s closure letter is dated July 8 and was emailed at 6:19 p.m. Eastern Time that same day.

In response to The Steady State’s request for the case file, OSC released 102 pages. Ninety-nine of them are The Steady State’s own complaint package, returned. The only pages originating with OSC are the two-page closure letter and the one-page email transmitting it.

The production contains no intake record, no case-opening or case-closing memorandum, no notes or legal analysis, no correspondence with the Department of Defense, and no record substantiating the closure letter’s statement that OSC “confirmed” the government was reimbursed a pro-rata share of Secretary Hegseth’s travel costs.

Either the produced file is complete, which would suggest that OSC did not conduct a comprehensive investigation, or the FOIA search was inadequate. We have asked OSC’s General Counsel to say which.

The appeal as filed is available HERE. Enclosures are available on request.

About The Steady State

The Steady State is an organization of more than 430 former national security professionals committed to defending American democracy from rising authoritarian threats. Its members include former ambassadors and senior State Department officials, senior CIA, Defense officials, FBI and DHS leaders, USAID and NSC staff, and senior congressional staff from both Republican and Democratic administrations.

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