Trump’s controversial OSC nominee pulled from confirmation hearing

A Senate panel that was set to consider President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. Special Counsel announced Thursday that Paul Ingrassia’s appearance before the committee had been postponed, after the 28-year-old’s lack of legal experience, association with neo-Nazis and an extensive public record of denigrating federal workers produced widespread outcry.

The announcement came at the outset of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s confirmation hearing, originally slated for six nominees to administration and judicial posts. The panel also postponed consideration of Charles Arrington, who Trump quietly tapped in May to replace ousted Federal Labor Relations Authority Chairwoman Susan Tsui Grundmann.

Grundmann has contested her firing, though a federal appeals court earlier this month allowed her removal to take effect while her case proceeds.

“I’m relieved to see that Paul Ingrassia, the nominee to run the Office of Special Counsel, has been pulled from today’s hearing,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the committee’s top Democrat. “The Office of Special Counsel is an independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices involving federal employees, including whistleblower retaliation. Mr. Ingrassia is unqualified for the position both in terms of his legal experience, and given his long history of bigoted statements, and I urge the administration to formally withdraw his nomination.”

Ingrassia’s nomination had drawn the ire of a wide range of stakeholders, including federal employee unions, professional associations that represent federal managers and good government organizations. Nearly two dozen of those groups jointly urged all 100 senators to oppose the “demonstrably unserious nominee” earlier this week.

Ingrassia has publicly associated with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, as well as Andrew Tate, the conservative social media influencer who is wanted in multiple countries on rape and sex trafficking charges.

And he has written extensively of his disdain for federal workers, describing them as “parasites” and “bugmen” who “leech of the diminishing lifeblood of the dying republic.”

In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley applauded the postponement of Ingrassia’s hearing.

“Our members deserve an OSC led by someone who respects and understands the critical role federal employees play in serving and protecting the American public,” Kelley said. “Federal employees who blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse put their careers on the line to expose corruption. They deserve protection, not persecution. The Senate must reject Ingrassia and demand a nominee committed to fairness, accountability and respect for public servants.”