Ingrassia Withdraws; Calls to Remove DHS Liaison

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew his nomination after POLITICO published a group‑chat of inflammatory texts in which he said the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell,” admitted to having a “Nazi streak,” and used racial slurs and called for elimination of Black holidays. The revelations prompted rare public GOP pushback — including from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sens. Ron Johnson and Rick Scott — who said they would not support his confirmation, effectively dooming the nomination. Ingrassia announced his withdrawal on Truth Social and the White House confirmed he was no longer the nominee. Democrats and some reporters urged that he be removed from his current role as a White House liaison to DHS. Ingrassia’s lawyer characterized the messages as satirical or manipulated, and the episode added to a string of controversial Trump picks that have prompted intra‑party limits on support.