U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin blasted the Trump administration for using federal government websites and emails to display partisan messages to the American people, at times appearing to be from federal government civil service employees, and reportedly without their knowledge or consent.

Numerous federal websites, including the homepages of the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all show partisan messages specifically blaming Democrats for the shutdown of the federal government.

Outgoing out-of-office auto-reply email messages at the Education Department and other government agencies also blamed Democrats for the shutdown. At the DOE, messages were inserted into emails and appeared as if the sender had written them, causing frustration among several civil service workers concerned about possibly appearing to violate the Hatch Act.

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“I have been contacted by numerous constituents outraged by the fact that the Trump Administration is now sending out blatantly partisan messages, both on official Websites and through emails from federal agencies,” Congressman Raskin, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement on Thursday, calling the messages “Orwellian miscommunication” and an “intolerable abuse of power.”

“These official agency messages blame ‘Senate Democrats’ and the ‘Radical Left’ for the government shutdown.” He alleged that several taxpayer-funded agencies “are now being turned into MAGA propaganda organs.”

“Taxpayers cannot be forced to be a captive audience for propaganda against the Administration’s opponents every time they inquire about their benefits and rights,” Raskin continued. “Nor may an Administration grant itself a campaign contribution of free nationwide political ads by hijacking agency service messages.”

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The Trump administration is being accused of manipulating the email messages of Department of Education civil service employees who say that — without their knowledge or consent — their out-of-office messages during the shutdown were altered and became partisan, a possible violation of the Hatch Act.

Emails were changed to “include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats,” according to NBC News.

“None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act,” one person told NBC.

“They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they’re now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act,” another Education Department employee said.

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The emails reportedly were changed to read: “Thank you for contacting me. On September 10, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse of appropriations, I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”

Employees who spoke to NBC News said even after they changed their out-of-office message back to the original, they were automatically altered again.

NBC News added it had reported on Wednesday “that some employees at federal agencies were being offered partisan language blaming Democrats for the shutdown to use as their out-of-office messages. A number of federal websites also now display language going after Democrats or the ‘radical left.'”

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Calling the administration’s actions “an unusually overt show of partisan messaging,” Politico reported that some ethics experts say that they may violate federal law.

In addition to out-of-office email messages, a “deluge of statements bashing Democrats began hours before the shutdown Tuesday with a single red pop-up posted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website. ‘The radical left are going to shut down the government,’ the page read.”

A banner atop the Department of Justice’s website currently reads: “Democrats have shut down the government.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website states: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”

Democrats are calling for an investigation.

“House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) sent a letter Thursday demanding an investigation into the use of federal websites to promote Republican political points during the government shutdown,” the Washington Examiner reported. “The letter cites the Hatch Act, which imposes restrictions on political activity by the federal government.”

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For weeks, the Trump administration has been claiming that undocumented immigrants — “illegals,” it says — have been getting free health care, and blaming the Biden administration for it. The President has said Democrats have shut down the government because they want to spend $1 trillion on health care for “illegals.”

Experts disagree.

Vice President JD Vance has come under fire for claiming on Wednesday that wait times at emergency rooms have increased because “illegals” are getting free health care.

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if emergency rooms should be checking immigration status before accepting a dying patient.

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After she declined to offer an opinion, deferring to legal and medical experts, the reporter asked, “do you think that illegal aliens should receive Medicaid benefits?”

She replied: “Medicaid benefits that go to the most vulnerable people in our country? Medicaid benefits that were designed to help low income families and Americans in our country?”

Leavitt claimed, falsely, that the Biden administration funneled millions of “illegal aliens” into a program called Protective Temporary Status (TPS) and granted them access to those “free benefits.”

The Biden administration “allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens from all over the world to come into our country, yes, and they paroled them into the system,” Leavitt claimed, calling it a “complete abuse of our immigration system. She added that “they slapped a Band-Aid on these illegals, they called it Temporary Protective Status [sic], and then they allowed those illegals, from all over the world, to get free benefits.”

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But her claim is false, according to several expert sources: TPS beneficiaries are not entitled to Medicaid or other similar federal government benefits.

“Some immigrants,” KFF last month noted, “such as those with temporary protected status, are lawfully present but do not have a qualified status and are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP regardless of their length of time in the country.”

“Beneficiaries are not eligible for any public assistance by virtue of their TPS status,” according to the American Immigration Council.

REPORTER: Should ERs check immigration status before treating a dying patient?

LEAVITT: That’s probably not a question for me to answer. That’s a question for healthcare professionals and legal experts to answer.

(That’s not a no!) pic.twitter.com/EOebtDZKkT

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2025

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