President Trump nominated former right-wing podcaster Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a key role for protecting whistleblowers and enforcing laws against electioneering.
Ingrassia is currently serving as a White House aide but was formerly a writer for The Daily Caller and hosted the podcast Right On Point. He is also an attorney, and previously served on the legal team representing self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.
“I am pleased to nominate Paul Ingrassia to head the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC),” Trump wrote on his social media site.
“Paul is a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar, who has done a tremendous job serving as my White House Liaison for Homeland Security.”
Ingrassia will take the reins of the OSC at a key time for the agency.
Trump fired previous special counsel Hampton Dellinger, even after he was confirmed to a five-year term for the role under President Biden.
Dellinger initially contested his firing and prevailed in court, staying in his post and forwarding challenges to Trump’s plans for widespread firings of probationary employees – those hired within the last year or two.
But an appeals court then declined to keep Dellinger in his role while the legal battle advanced, pushing him to quit.
Without Dellinger on the job, the OSC has switched positions on cases now before the Merit Systems Protection Board – another board where Trump has sought to fire leadership appointed to several-year terms.
That includes fighting to keep probationary workers in their roles.
If confirmed, Ingrassia would also be responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from campaigning for a candidate while on the job.
During the first Trump administration, officials repeatedly ran afoul of the law, in particular then-aide Kellyanne Conway, who was cited for numerous violations.
In his prior life as a conservative commentator, Ingrassia lavished praise on Tate, calling him the “embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence” for his “sheer physical prowess” and being “sharp as a tack” and full of “willpower and spirit.”
Tate has been charged with human trafficking in Romania as well as rape in the United Kingdom.
Ingrassia has also pushed for Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has espoused white supremacist and antisemitic views, to be reinstated to Twitter, now known as X, calling it a First Amendment issue in a Substack post.
