Congressional Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of violating the Hatch Act, which makes it illegal to use government resources to promote a partisan political agenda, for messaging inserted at the top of several government websites blaming the partial federal shutdown on Democrats.

Major parts of the government shut down at midnight on Wednesday when Congress failed to pass a temporary funding package that would keep operations afloat until December.

“Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse,” a message on the top of the U.S. Department of Agriculture website said on Thursday.

“President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people,” it added.

The home page of the Department of Housing and Urban Development website has similar messaging.

“The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government,” a pop-up on the department’s website says. The wording is slightly changed from pre-shutdown language that warned of “massive pain on the American people” from the “Radical Left.”

Secretary Scott Turner promoted the messaging in an X post, claiming HUD was working to keep critical services online.

While the messaging could be interpreted as just the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to troll Democrats, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Robert Garcia, is not amused.

In a letter to the acting special counsel, Jamieson Greer, Mr. Garcia complains that the messaging helps “promote a false, partisan Republican political agenda.” Mr. Garcia is requesting a misconduct investigation for “this blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars for political purposes.”

Mr. Garcia’s letter sets an October 16 deadline for Mr. Greer to brief the Oversight Committee’s Democrats about how he plans to address the administration’s alleged weaponization of federal resources for political reasons.

The left-leaning Democracy Defenders Fund also has called for an investigation over the “Radical Left in Congress” wording on the HUD website. In a formal letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the group said the messaging was a misuse of taxpayer dollars and appears to violate the Anti-Deficiency Act’s prohibition on using appropriated funds for partisan propaganda.  

At the same time, some federal employees are complaining that their email accounts were manipulated to include partisan messaging after they were furloughed. Several Department of Education employees told NBC News that the language in nonpartisan out-of-office autoreplies they set up were changed after they left the office.

One person told the news outlet that after changing the message back to the nonpartisan version, it reverted to the new language again.

“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,” the unidentified employee told NBC. “I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal.”

If any Trump administration officials are found to have broken the Hatch Act they could face various possible penalties, from fines to suspensions and even being fired.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which is tasked with enforcing the Hatch Act, does not have the partisan messaging on its website. “Due to a lapse in appropriations, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is closed,” a banner on the site states. “Complaints may still be filed, but most will not be addressed until OSC reopens.”

No one, of course, from the Special Counsel’s office was available to comment on the Democrats’ complaints.