Sarah Huckabee Sanders hit with ethics complaint over call for ESPN to fire Jemele Hill

The Democratic Coalition, an anti-Trump Super PAC, has filed an ethics complaint against White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders with the Office of Government Ethics for her comments calling on ESPN host Jemele Hill to be fired.

The group claims federal law prohibits government employee from influencing “a private entity’s employment…solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation.”

“When Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for Jemele Hill to be fired by ESPN, she crossed the line and put herself in dubious legal territory,” Coalition Chairman Jon Cooper said in a statement Thursday. “Even in Donald Trump’s America, there’s still such a thing as freedom of speech. For Sanders to publicly call for the dismissal of a Trump critic is bizarre and disturbing, to say the least. If anyone is to be fired, it should be her.”

Also Read:WH Press Secretary Says ESPN Sportscaster Should Be Fired for Calling Trump 'White Supremacist'

On Wednesday, Huckabee said that ESPN should consider firing Hill for calling President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter.

“I think it’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make and certainly something I think is a fireable offense by ESPN,” Sanders said.

18 U.S. Code § 227 makes it a federal crime — punishable by a fine or up to 15 years in prison or both — for any executive branch employees to influence or threaten to influence a private employment decision.

Also Read:Jemele Hill Says She 'Expressed My Personal Beliefs,' But Regrets Painting 'ESPN in an Unfair Light'

“This is yet another example of the Trump White House’s blatant disregard for the Constitution and its authoritarian efforts to quiet dissenters,”Nate Lerner, the group’s Executive Director, said. “It is of the utmost importance that we hold the Trump administration accountable for this illicit behavior and protect our democratic institutions.”

The White House did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

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