{"id":135683,"date":"2025-10-23T07:44:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/23\/office-of-special-counsels-nomination-pulled-after-racist-text-scandal\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T07:44:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:44:00","slug":"office-of-special-counsels-nomination-pulled-after-racist-text-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/23\/office-of-special-counsels-nomination-pulled-after-racist-text-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Office Of Special Counsel\u2019s Nomination Pulled After Racist Text Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have found the line! It\u2019s easy to imagine in 2025 that there is no scandal too great to stop a Trump nominee but, well, there is such a thing as too much scandal. And Paul Ingrassia has found that threshold<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The 2022 Cornell Law grad was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel and the nom survived the alleged links<\/a> to antisemitic extremists and the sexual harassment investigation<\/a>, but the racist texts were simply a bridge too far<\/a> for Senate Republicans. Yesterday, Ingrassia posted on social media, \u201cI will be withdrawing myself from Thursday\u2019s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time. 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!\u201d And a White House official said, \u201cHe\u2019s no longer being nominated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, POLITICO reported on a right-wing group chat where Ingrassia wrote, \u201cMLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his \u2018holiday\u2019 should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.\u201d And, \u201cNo moulignon holidays \u2026 From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,\u201d then added: \u201cEvery single one needs to be eviscerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when one member of the chat said, \u201cPaul belongs in the Hitler Youth with Ubergruppenfuhrer Steve Bannon,\u201d Ingrassia agreed. \u201cI do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it,\u201d Ingrassia responded. When called out as a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d and \u201cscumbag\u201d on the chat Ingrassia didn\u2019t back down. \u201cNah it\u2019s fine \u2026 Don\u2019t be a boomer \u2026 I don\u2019t mind being a scumbag from time to time,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

After reports of the offensive text chain broke, at\u00a0least four Republican senators including John Thune, Rick Scott, and Ron Johnson pulled their support of Ingrassia\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Office Of Special Counsel\u2019s Nomination Pulled After Racist Text Scandal<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Ingrassia\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have found the line! It\u2019s easy to imagine in 2025 that there is no scandal too great to stop a Trump nominee but, well, there is such a thing as too much scandal. And Paul Ingrassia has found that threshold<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The 2022 Cornell Law grad was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel and the nom survived the alleged links<\/a> to antisemitic extremists and the sexual harassment investigation<\/a>, but the racist texts were simply a bridge too far<\/a> for Senate Republicans. Yesterday, Ingrassia posted on social media, \u201cI will be withdrawing myself from Thursday\u2019s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time. 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!\u201d And a White House official said, \u201cHe\u2019s no longer being nominated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, POLITICO reported on a right-wing group chat where Ingrassia wrote, \u201cMLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his \u2018holiday\u2019 should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.\u201d And, \u201cNo moulignon holidays \u2026 From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,\u201d then added: \u201cEvery single one needs to be eviscerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when one member of the chat said, \u201cPaul belongs in the Hitler Youth with Ubergruppenfuhrer Steve Bannon,\u201d Ingrassia agreed. \u201cI do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it,\u201d Ingrassia responded. When called out as a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d and \u201cscumbag\u201d on the chat Ingrassia didn\u2019t back down. \u201cNah it\u2019s fine \u2026 Don\u2019t be a boomer \u2026 I don\u2019t mind being a scumbag from time to time,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

After reports of the offensive text chain broke, at\u00a0least four Republican senators including John Thune, Rick Scott, and Ron Johnson pulled their support of Ingrassia\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have found the line! It\u2019s easy to imagine in 2025 that there is no scandal too great to stop a Trump nominee but, well, there is such a thing as too much scandal. And Paul Ingrassia has found that threshold! The 2022 Cornell Law grad was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-i0OSDi.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}