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. This touched off a legal fight, which the White House ultimately won, and offered Trump an opportunity to choose a new OSC chief.
We now know that he made an indefensible choice.
In an item posted to his social media platform late Thursday, the president announced plans to nominate Paul Ingrassia to lead the office, describing Ingrassia, the current White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, as “a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar.”
That can charitably be described as an incomplete description of what makes Ingrassia notable. The Washington Post reported:
Ingrassia … has 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. He was also part of a legal team representing self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and forming an organized-crime group in Romania, as well as rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, Ingrassia likened Tate to ‘the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence.’
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 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—h” who might be an “anchor baby” too. After Trump announced his selection — which will require Senate confirmation — Ingrassia said online that he intends to “make every effort to restore competence and integrity to the Executive Branch … and Revitalize the Rule of Law.” Given his radical background, that seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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