Racist text scandal sinks Trump nominee for government watchdog post

Paul Ingrassia withdrew his nomination to lead a government watchdog agency on Tuesday after his inflammatory rhetoric came to a head this week in a report about race-fueled text messages he purportedly sent.

Ingrassia's decision to remove himself from consideration comes two days before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs was set to consider his nomination.

"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 wrote on social media.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., quashed all hope of Ingrassia's confirmation on Monday, saying, "He's not going to pass." When asked on Tuesday if it would be a mistake for Ingrassia to appear for his hearing, Thune laughed and said "yeah."

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Paul Ingrassia, White House Liaison to the Justice Department, left, announces the release of brothers Andrew and Matthew Valentin outside the D.C. Central Detention Facility on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Pete Kiehart for The Washington Post)

Ingrassia, 30, said in a group chat, according to Politico, that he sometimes had a "Nazi streak" in him, and he used the term "moulignon," an Italian slur for black people, to call for doing away with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.

The leaked chat was only the latest controversy as Ingrassia has floated around the administration.

In July, Ingrassia faced a formal complaint from a lower-ranking female colleague who alleged, according to Politico, that when they arrived at a hotel for a work trip in Orlando, she found she did not have a room and was informed by Ingrassia that she would be sharing one with him. The woman, who did end up sharing a room with him, later retracted the complaint and Ingrassia also disputed it.

Ingrassia has publicly defended social media influencer and self-described "misogynist" Andrew Tate, and previously worked at a law firm that said he was on Tate’s legal team before his July 2024 admission to the New York bar. Tate and his brother face U.K. charges of rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, filed by the Crown Prosecution Service in May 2025. They deny the allegations.

Ingrassia was first hired as a White House liaison at the Department of Justice, where he was briefly put in charge of hiring Trump loyalists at the department. But he abruptly left and took a job at the Department of Homeland Security instead.

President Donald Trump nominated Ingrassia in May to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency (unaffiliated with the DOJ) that vets workplace complaints from federal employees.

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President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

"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 on Truth Social at the time.

Ingrassia denied the text messages to Politico, saying through his lawyer that even if they were real, "they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor making fun of the fact that liberals outlandishly and routinely call MAGA supporters ‘Nazis.’"

Ingrassia has been scrutinized time and again for controversial writings, and pressure had been building on Trump to yank his nomination.

In a since deleted X post days after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel, Ingrassia called the Palestine-Israel conflict a "psyop."

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate (C) arrives at the Municipal Court of Bucharest, Romania, on June 21, 2023. (DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images)

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A coalition of Jewish organizations was among those who called for Ingrassia's nomination to be withdrawn.

"Mr. Ingrassia’s public statements and associations with people who espouse antisemitic, racist, and misogynistic views, raise serious questions about his ability to carry out these responsibilities with the integrity, impartiality, and commitment required of the office," the coalition wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Ingrassia's announcement.

Alex Miller contributed to this report.