President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is a far-right commentator who’s a little green behind the ears.
Paul Ingrassia, currently the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, will be tasked with leading the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the independent agency that investigates and prosecutes wrongdoing within the executive branch, USA Today reported.
“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,” Trump wrote in a May 29 Truth Social post.
Ingrassia has minimal legal experience: He served as a law clerk at Kasowitz Benson Torres for six months, then served as a summer associate for five months and law clerk for six months at New York-based law firm McBride. Ingrassia graduated from Fordham University—which Trump also attended before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania—in 2017 and Cornell Law School in 2022.
The OSC investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices of federal employees and applicants, including retaliation for whistleblowing. It also enforces the Hatch Act, which limits partisan political activity by government employees.
As the head of the OSC, Ingrassia said he will make “every effort to restore competence and integrity to the Executive Branch—with priority on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal workforce and revitalize the Rule of Law and Fairness in Hatch Act enforcement,” he said on X.
Ingrassia is a far-right political commentator who has written for The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit. Following the 2020 election, Ingrassia called for Trump to declare martial law to stay in office and even called for secession if efforts to overturn the election failed, CNN reported. He also denounced several conservatives who opposed violent measures to keep Trump in power.
Ingrassia has falsely claimed that former Ambassador to the United Nations and presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not eligible to serve as president, which Trump subsequently reposted on Truth Social. Ingrassia also posted on X that Haley was an “insufferable b—h,” CNN reported.
Throughout his short legal career, the young Republican and far-right Substack author also represented alleged human trafficker and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, The Hill reported. He also pushed for white supremacist Nick Fuentes to be reinstated on X after he was banned for hate speech and antisemitic views. Ingrassia called it a First Amendment issue in a Substack post called “Free Nick Fuentes.”
Ingrassia worked for the New York-based McBride law firm, which pledged to combat “the Department of Justice’s malicious prosecution and horrific treatment of January 6th Detainees,” according to ABC News.
After media host Sebastian Gorka rebuked calls for former Vice President Mike Pence to be arrested and executed by firing squad for not supporting attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Ingrassia called him “soft” on X in a post dated Jan. 2, 2021.
Gorka’s always been soft
— Paul Ingrassia (@PaulIngrassia) January 3, 2021
He’s also linked Pence to Bible figures Brutus and Judas in a now-deleted X post, saying Pence belonged in the “ninth circle of Hell.”
On the night of Jan. 6, Ingrassia posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy on his podcast account, saying, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible (will) make violent revolution inevitable.”
After the 2020 election, Ingrassia changed the name of his and his sister’s podcast from “Right on Point” to “STOP THE SEAL HQ” and started selling signs for Trump’s legal defense.
After leaving the law firm, Ingrassia served as the White House Liaison for the Department of Justice for two months before he was reassigned because he pushed to hire candidates showing “exceptional loyalty” to Trump, clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top aide, Chad Mizelle, ABC News reported. Ingrassia ended up serving as White House Liaison for the Department of Homeland Security instead.
Ingrassia’s predecessor, Hampton Delliger, was fired by Trump in February. He sued to keep his job, and despite a momentary legal battle, his layoff was finalized on March 6.
Right before getting ousted, Dellinger raged against Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mass expulsions, claiming that they appeared to be illegal. He even attempted to prevent the termination of six employees and launched an investigation into the matter. He was unsuccessful and was fired shortly after.
The post Trump Picks Far-Right Conspiracist as Government Watchdog appeared first on The Daily Beast.
