“Department of Education employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats,” NBC News reports.

“Five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them.”

Said one: “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.”