President Donald Trump recently nominated Paul Ingrassia to lead a federal watchdog agency, but things have turned upside down. Ingrassia, who was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel, had been scheduled to have his confirmation hearing this week. However, Paul withdrew his nomination on Tuesday after his offensive text messages were leaked and GOP Senators revolted.
After the degrading texts were made public, many Republican senators said they would not support the nomination. They included some of the most conservative Trump allies in the Senate as well.
“I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because, unfortunately, I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” Ingrassia posted online.
“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout the process and will continue to serve President Trump and the administration to Make America Great Again!” HSGAC is the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.
Politico reported on Monday that a text message revealed him saying that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday must be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.” What made matters worse is when Ingrassia described himself in the texts as having “a Nazi streak” at times.
The post came after Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said he hoped the White House would withdraw Ingrassia’s nomination. According to the texts revealed by Politico, Paul told those in the chat that “MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”
BREAKING: new racist Republican groupchat has been leaked to Politico featuring texts from Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel.
Ingrassia’s texts include vile pro-Nazi & racist messages targeting Black people, Chinese people, and Indian people. pic.twitter.com/bxy5ZKdPQn
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) October 20, 2025
Politico even reached out to Ingrassia’s lawyer; however, he said that the texts could have been manipulated or that they might be missing some context. The lawyer blatantly confirmed that the texts weren’t authentic.
Republicans have managed to approve most of Trump’s nominees despite strong Democratic opposition. But at times, they’ve quietly pushed back, showing their support does have limits. Matt Gaetz recently withdrew as Trump’s first choice as attorney general just after being tabbed for the job.
In fact, in May, Donald Trump pulled his nomination of Ed Martin Jr. for the top federal prosecutor for the capital. The President completely ignored the conservative activist’s modest legal experience and support for the January 6 rioters.
The White House declared last month that E.J. Antoni’s nomination to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be withdrawn. After a dismal jobs report, a BLS director was sacked, and Antoni was scheduled to take over.
The Office of Special Counsel is an investigative and prosecutorial office responsible for protecting government employees and whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting wrongdoing. It’s the same office that’s responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act. The Act that restricts the partisan political deeds of government employees.
In May, Trump took to social media and described Ingrassia as a “highly respected attorney, writer and Constitutional Scholar.”
