White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for her frequent references to the Hatch Act -- a law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity for partisan purposes -- as an excuse to avoid answering a wide variety of even clearly non-political questions from reporters.

It was rather ironic, then, when it was reported this week that the independent Office of Special Counsel found that Jean-Pierre's also frequent use of the phrase "mega MAGA Republicans" to disparage the GOP was in violation of the Hatch Act, according to Fox News.

OSC decided to let Jean-Pierre off with just a warning, and the press secretary, who clearly seemed to disagree with the determination of a violation, has essentially proclaimed ignorance and that she "didn't know" her repeated usage of an overtly disparaging phrase, in context, violated the law she so often references.

Jean-Pierre warned over violation

NBC News was the first to report Monday that the OSC, in response to a complaint filed by the conservative-leaning watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust, issued a warning letter about Jean-Pierre's repeated violation of the Hatch Act with the chosen descriptive phrase to lambast Republicans who are aligned with or support former President Donald Trump.

That letter, dated June 7 and addressed to the head of the watchdog group, Michael Chamberlain, noted that an investigation of the complaint in regard to the press secretary's comments ahead of the 2022 midterm elections had concluded that Jean-Pierre had violated the law, but that "we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action" and instead sent a separate warning letter to the lawbreaker.

"Because Ms. Jean‐Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election," OSC Hatch Act Unit Chief Ana Galindo-Marrone wrote.

She further noted that a decision was made to "close this matter without further action" but that Jean-Pierre was now on notice that "should she again engage in prohibited political activity, OSC would consider it a knowing and willful violation of the law that could result in OSC pursuing disciplinary action."

In response to that letter, Chamberlain told NBC News, "This episode illustrates exactly what people hate about Washington, D.C., and why they increasingly distrust the Biden Administration’s promises to be the most ethical in history," and added, "The Hatch Act was a law used to pillory previous administrations but officials now appear content to sweep it under the rug."

Jean-Pierre claims ignorance of law she incessantly cites

During Tuesday's press briefing, Jean-Pierre was asked about the warning letter she received from OSC and whether she had also received any additional guidance from the White House Counsel's Office on the issue.

She replied that the White House Counsel was reviewing the OSC letter and would respond accordingly but then proceeded to attempt to defend herself by citing "nearly 2,000 uses of 'MAGA'" by the Trump White House and congressional Republicans to describe themselves or their policies -- leaving out the strong likelihood that it was her disparaging context of the "MAGA" phrase, and not the phrase itself, that violated the law.

Jean-Pierre also seemed to take issue with the OSC's warning being "retroactive" for something that happened months ago and then claimed that "we did not know" the phrase in question would be in violation of the law.

Asked if she "disagreed" with the OSC's findings, she replied, "No. What I’m saying is that this -- we got this letter last week. And -- and it was retroactive, right? The letter was retroactive. I -- what I -- the comments that I made was months prior. And so, we didn’t know that was the opinion months prior, when it was said."

Fourth Biden official, that we know of, to violate law

According to the New York Post, Jean-Pierre is now the fourth Biden administration official, at least that the public is aware of, who has been found by the independent OSC to have violated the Hatch Act.

In April, Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra was found to have violated the law by endorsing Sen. Alex Padilla's (D-CA) re-election; in October 2022, then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was busted for retweeting partisan solicitations from his official government account; and in October 2021, then-press secretary Jen Psaki was deemed in violation for speaking in support of Virginia Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign.