President Donald Trump's pick for head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Paul Ingrassia, withdrew his nomination on Tuesday after Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he would not support the nominee because of texts he sent to a group chat that became public.
The texts allegedly said that Ingrassia claimed he had a "Nazi streak" and that the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”
"I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s [Senate Homeland Security Committee] hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time," he posted on X. "I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!"
Without Scott's support, Ingrassia could not get approved by the committee and get a full confirmation vote by the Senate.
Ingrassia has been the White House liaison to the United States Department of Homeland Security since February 2025, so he's already been inside the administration, influencing policy and working closely with Trump and others at the White House.
The controversy has been known since June, but the way the Senate has been slow-walking Trump's nominees, it hadn't been a well-known issue.
Allegedly, Ingrassia's mother showed up on Capitol Hill in June and tried to defend him to Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Robert Garcia (D-CA), who sent a scathing letter about him to Republicans on the committee.
“Mr. Ingrassia is unfit to serve as special counsel and his nomination is insulting to the American people,” the offensive letter read in part.
Whatever else Ingrassia has said or done, it's just not a good look when your mom shows up to Congress to defend you.
Trump had been making progress in getting his nominees through the confirmation process after Republicans tweaked a few of the rules so that Democrats couldn't continue to slow things down to a snail's pace.
Batches of more than 100 nominees each have been confirmed in one fell swoop over the last few weeks, but any nominees that are controversial or opposed by one or more Republicans, like Ingrassia was, are not included in a batch.
Before Trump took office again in January, most nominees were approved by unanimous consent of the Senate, but that went by the wayside so that Democrats could claim they were trying to preserve Democracy and may never be seen again in Washington.
Eventually, Republicans and Trump got tired of having to spend so much time and effort on each nominee and began demanding the rule changes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spearheaded the rule changes in September.
