Paul Ingrassia’s name might not be familiar to most Americans, but the right-wing lawyer and former podcast host is currently serving as the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, and he’s also Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Office of Special Counsel.
With this in mind, Politico reported on an incident from late July in which Ingrassia arrived at a Florida hotel with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. From the article:
When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room. Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.
According to the report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC, the woman, a fellow Trump appointee, initially protested but relented, reluctant to make a scene. The two reportedly ended up sharing the room, sleeping in separate beds.
Ingrassia’s attorney said no last-minute changes were made to the hotel reservations and his client never harassed any coworkers. Nevertheless, the incident resulted in an official investigation, and according to Politico, “the fallout from the incident has been the talk of the upper echelons of DHS ever since.”
This probably won’t help his nomination.
For those who might need a refresher, during Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel was a routine annoyance. The OSC (not to be confused with appointed special counsels such as Jack Smith or Robert Mueller) frequently investigated allegations of misconduct and ethical lapses at the White House, which led to multiple findings related to Hatch Act violations.
The president was apparently determined to bring the office to heel in his second term, which is why he fired Hampton Dellinger as the head of the independent ethics agency just a couple of weeks after his second inaugural.
In May, Trump announced that he’d chosen Ingrassia to lead the office, describing his nominee as “a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar.” That wasn’t an entirely complete description. On the contrary, The Washington Post reported that Ingrassia had “publicly advocated” for white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, publishing a Substack titled ‘Free Nick Fuentes’ and writing on X that ‘dissident voices’ such as Fuentes should have a place in conservative politics.
What’s more, as The New York Times reported, Ingrassia also hosted a podcast, called “Right on Point,” and in December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of his election defeat, the podcast posted on Twitter that it was time for outgoing Republican president “to declare martial law and secure his re-election.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, a CNN report from earlier this year noted that Ingrassia’s podcast account also posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy the night of the Jan. 6 attack that read, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, (will) make violent revolution inevitable.”
The same CNN piece added, “Ingrassia’s tweets have likened [former Vice President Mike] Pence to Brutus and Judas, saying he belongs in the ‘ninth circle of hell.’ He has repeatedly called for expelling ‘traitors’ from the GOP.”
The Atlantic noted that Ingrassia has called Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s former United Nations ambassador who ran against him, in the Republican primary, an “insufferable b—-” who might be an “anchor baby” too.
MSNBC’s Barbara McQuade also highlighted Ingrassia’s 9/11 conspiracy theories, adding, “Picking Paul Ingrassia to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is not like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. It’s more like setting fire to the whole farm.”
In July, NBC News reported that retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced his opposition to Ingrassia’s nomination, undermining his confirmation odds. His chances are likely even worse now.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
