Trump Nominee To Lead Special Counsel’s Office Languishes in Senate Following Scrutiny of Incendiary Social Media History

As Republican senators prepare to head out for their annual summer recess, they are delaying the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel — a key investigatory and prosecutorial office responsible for overseeing the federal civil service.The nominee, Paul Ingrassia, has a long history of making inflammatory statements, often on social media, that have raised eyebrows even among members of the president’s own party. Mr. Ingrassia, at the age of 30, spent much of his brief legal career representing those accused of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was admitted to the New York bar just more than one year ago. He was due to appear alongside other presidential nominees before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this month, but his appearance was canceled without explanation. Republican senators say there are no plans right now to have him appear. The chairman of the committee, Senator Paul, tells the Sun that there are no updates to Mr. Ingrassia’s nomination at the moment. Another member of the panel, Senator Lankford, tells the Sun that lawmakers need more time to look through Mr. Ingrassia’s history of social media posts before they move forward. “I have questions,” Mr. Lankford said Thursday. “There’s enough posting [online], enough background things to be able to look at and say, ‘Hey, we gotta be able to clear some things up.’”“Special Counsel’s a pretty important position, and we want to make sure that it’s a good fit for the president,” Mr. Lankford said. The top Democrat on the committee, Senator Peters, said he was “relieved” last week when Mr. Ingrassia was abruptly disinvited from the committee hearing where his nomination was supposed to be considered. “The Office of Special Counsel is an independent, non-partisan agency that investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices involving federal employees, including whistleblower retaliation,” Mr. Peters said at the opening of the hearing. “Mr. Ingrassia is unqualified for the position both in terms of legal experience and given his long record of bigoted statements, and I urge the Administration to formally withdraw his nomination.”Mr. Ingrassia, long before graduating Cornell Law School, has been a diehard supporter of Mr. Trump. In 2020, he was hosting a podcast as the then-45th president was fighting to overturn that year’s presidential election results. The social media page for Mr. Ingrassia’s podcast on the site then known as Twitter called on the president to “declare martial law and secure his re-election!”In 2023, Mr. Ingrassia called on Mr. Trump to unilaterally fire the three Supreme Court justices whom he had appointed during his first term. “When Trump gets back into office, he should remove his three Supreme Court picks and replace them with true loyalists,” he wrote on X. “After all, the 2020 election could have (and should have) been decided by the Supreme Court through the Texas lawsuit, much like the Court did in Bush v. Gore.” When someone commented on his post that Mr. Trump needed to pick “constitutionalists” and not loyalists, Mr. Ingrassia responded: “Trump is the constitution.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment. One Republican lawmaker, Senator Tillis, is already firmly against Mr. Ingrassia’s nomination. He helped sink the nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia earlier this year, citing Mr. Martin’s support for those accused or convicted of committing violent acts at the Capitol on January 6. In an interview with NBC News earlier this month, Mr. Tillis said he has the same concerns about Mr. Ingrassia. “It’s January 6th, it’s a number of other things. So, I think he’s one of these people that’s checked all the boxes and they’re all the wrong boxes,” he said. “It’s pretty apparent to me he’s not ready for prime time, but he’s young, he’s got plenty of time to learn.”Last week, Mr. Tillis told the Sun that he believes other Republicans have started “asking questions” about Mr. Ingrassia’s nomination, which led his committee appearance to be canceled.

Trump Nominee To Lead Special Counsel’s Office Languishes in Senate Following Scrutiny of Incendiary Social Media History

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