Lynne Patton

Beginning in January 2017, Patton served as a White House liaison and Director of Public Liaison for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.[23][24][11][25] Since the Trump Organization co-owns some properties that receive federal rental subsidies from HUD, her position raised questions of conflict of interest.[26]

Since July 5, 2017, Patton has served as head of Region II.[3][27] She has no reported experience with housing policy.[4][11] Congressional Representatives Grace Meng and Nydia Velázquez, both Democrats from New York, publicly urged the administration to reconsider the appointment.[28][29]

In January 2018, Patton called April Ryan, the White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, "Miss Piggy".[30] Patton later apologized.[30]

In September 2018, Patton commented positively with two emojis on an Instagram post by Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, mocking the sexual assault allegation against Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. That same month, Patton made misleading posts on social media suggesting that CNN "is #FakeNews."[31]

In November 2018, Patton claimed that she would be moving from her New York apartment in Trump Plaza to New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing, saying, "It was not okay for me to preside over the largest housing crisis in the nation from the warmth and comfort of my own safe and sanitary apartment while NYCHA residents continue to suffer the most inhumane conditions."[32] Patton blamed the housing authority for ineptitude and indifference to the conditions "suffered by hard working residents."[32] A number of housing experts described the move as an "potentially savvy publicity stunt."[32] She began an announced month-long stay in NYCHA housing on February 11, 2019.[33]

At a February 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing, Republican congressman Mark Meadows presented Patton at the hearing of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to rebut Cohen's assertion that Trump is a "racist." This prompted a sharp exchange later between Meadows and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who asserted, "The fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber in this committee is alone racist in itself."[34][35][36] After being pressed by Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on what she meant, Tlaib clarified her remarks and apologized to Meadows.[37]

In May 2019, after using her government Twitter account to share a partisan tweet, Patton controversially remarked "I honestly don't care" in regards to a potential violation of federal law under the Hatch Act.[38][39] Patton received a warning letter from the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) in September 2019 for two violations of the Hatch Act, but the OSC decided not to pursue disciplinary action and cleared her of two other alleged violations, one of which was the above mentioned tweet.[40][41]

In August 2019, she responded to the suicide of accused underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein with an Instagram post that promoted unfounded conspiracy theories about Vince Foster's 1993 suicide; Patton suggested that both men had been "Hillary'd!!"[42]

In 2020, Patton tricked four New Yorkers into appearing in a video that was played at the 2020 Republican National Convention.[43] Patton unexpectedly called the leader of a NYCHA tenants' association, telling them that she was interested in speaking with tenants about poor public housing conditions, and personally interviewed four tenants for four hours.[43] The tenants' comments were edited down to a two-minute video clip that was played at the Republican convention to attack New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.[43] The tenants, who were never told the true purpose of the interviews, were angered; one of the tenants said she was not a Trump supporter and disapproved "of his racist policies on immigration."[43]