Lynne Patton, a former Trump administration appointee, reached a settlement with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) after being accused of violating the Hatch Act, a law that bars public officials from using their position to engage in political activity. Patton, who served as Region II Administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2017 to earlier this year, admitted to breaking the regulation by producing a video about housing conditions for the Republican National Convention (RNC), according to an OSC press release. As a HUD employee, Patton met with residents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and recruited some of them to appear in a video explaining how their living conditions had improved under the tenure of President Donald Trump. “By using information and NYCHA connections available to her solely by virtue of her HUD position, Patton improperly harnessed the authority of her federal …