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Politico
2 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Playbook: The redistricting arms race
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco On today's Playbook Podcast, Adam Wren and Zack Stanton talk about the rush to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election and break down the outlook in a few key states. Good morning. It's Wednesday. This is Adam Wren. Get in touch. In today's Playbook … — While Donald Trump pressures red states to redistrict ahead of 2026, Hakeem Jeffries heads to Texas to strategize over how to derail those efforts. — It's a big day for economic news, as Q2 GDP numbers drop this morning and Jerome Powell announces a decision on interest rates this afternoon. — First in Playbook: Private chatter among Democratic governors is that one of their own will claim the party's mantle in 2028, Jonathan Martin reports, with two early favorites getting buzz. DRIVING THE DAY MAP QUEST: The redistricting arms race is front and center today not only in Washington, but also in state capitals around the country, as the White House ramps up its efforts to get red states to gerrymander new Republican seats ahead of 2026. Democrats are looking to respond in kind, hoping to eke out more blue seats from their own strongholds even as they search for ways to impede the GOP's attempts. This morning, we have the latest on all of it — and readouts from POLITICO reporters across the country on how seriously to take the remapping chatter about their home turf. Let's start in Washington … First in Playbook — Hatch Act inquiry: As key figures in the Trump administration bear down on red-state governors and legislators, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) today will push for an investigation into possible violations of the Hatch Act. In a letter shared first with Playbook, Padilla is asking the Office of Special Counsel to look into whether senior political appointees in the White House and Justice Department broke the law by prevailing on Texas and other GOP-held states to redraw congressional maps with the explicit goal of electing more Republicans to Congress. Read the letter How Trump is thinking about it: President Donald Trump is abundantly aware of the historical reality that midterms tend to go poorly for the incumbent party, and the present-day reality that Republicans have a narrow House majority. The White House (naturally) wants to maintain control of the chamber — both to forestall investigations and oversight attempts by a Democratic-led House, and to continue to enact the president's policy agenda during his final two years in office. That's why he has personally taken it upon himself to push for remapping. But the most wired-in Republicans privately concede that they're not going to win the midterms through redistricting efforts alone. 'If we are relying on redistricting to hold the majorities, we have bigger issues,' said a Republican operative close to the White House who works on Senate and House races. Still, this operative defended the push: 'Frankly, [Democrats] do it, so we are giving them a dose of their own medicine.' The centerpiece of Trump's effort is Texas. 'There could be some other states we're going to get another three, or four or five' Republican seats Trump said earlier this month. 'Texas would be the biggest one. Just a simple redrawing, [and] we pick up five seats.' Which brings us to Austin … Today: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will arrive in Austin and huddle with Texas' Democratic legislators tonight. 'This is a moment that requires a forceful on-the-ground response, and that is why I am traveling to Texas to convene with members of the Texas House and Senate delegations as well as our Democratic members representing Texas [in Congress],' Jeffries said in a statement to Playbook. Also on Jeffries' schedule: Tomorrow, he'll hold a news conference in the state, his office tells Playbook, before heading to California later in the week. It's part of a full-court press that includes cable TV hits, podcast appearances and social media interviews with online creators. How Texas Dems are messaging about it: Late last night, Playbook spoke with one of the Texans who'll meet with Jeffries tonight: state Rep. James Talarico, who, on the heels of his recent widely praised interview with Joe Rogan, is considering a run for U.S. Senate next year. 'I honestly think it's a threat to everyone, not just Democrats,' Talarico told Playbook of the GOP's mid-cycle redistricting push. 'They are trying to insulate themselves from the voters' — a concern that Talarico cited in noting that he has drafted legislation to create an independent redistricting commission in Texas. Dems' new gambit: With few cards to play, Texas Democrats are considering fleeing the state in order to deny Republicans the quorum needed to enact new maps. 'I'm willing to do that if we get to that point,' Talarico told Playbook. First in Playbook — House Dems ante up: The Democratic-aligned House Majority Forward is making a six-figure investment in ads spread across several congressional districts: Texas' 2nd, 5th, 15th and 24th. It's the opening salvo of the Lone Star Fund, which is expected to deploy upward of $20 million in spending before Election Day 2026. THE LAY OF THE LAND: To help cut through the mapmaking noise, Playbook assembled some of POLITICO's top reporters from around the country to give you a readout on the likelihood of redistricting in their states. California: Gov. Gavin Newsom has unequivocally embraced national Democrats' gerrymandering countermove, Democrats wield supermajorities and redistricting experts believe new lines could add a few more seats to Democrats' already-lopsided 43-9 advantage in the congressional delegation, POLITICO's Jeremy White writes in. But there are still formidable obstacles: It would require persuading voters to return power to politicians after stripping it away. How seriously should you take it? Very — especially if Texas moves forward. Florida: In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis muscled through a map that helped Republicans pick up four House seats and flip the chamber. The state Supreme Court recently upheld that map, and last week, DeSantis said there was 'ample justification' to change the lines again in the ever-growing state. But so far, GOP legislative leaders have been mum about that, POLITICO's Gary Fineout tells us. And there could be litigation, since the state has voter-approved redistricting standards that ban redrawing districts for partisan gain. How seriously should you take it? Significantly. New York: Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul have gamed out how to redistrict, but Dems have few immediate avenues to pursue, POLITICO's Nick Reisman tells us. The state constitution prohibits mid-decade redistricting, so only a legal challenge to the current House lines can trigger new maps. Two state lawmakers have introduced a constitutional amendment that would allow New York to redistrict mid-cycle if another state is doing the same. But changing the constitution is cumbersome; an amendment wouldn't be in place until after 2026. How seriously should you take it? It's about as likely as the Jets winning the Super Bowl, Nick tells us. (For those non-sports fans: That's exceedingly unlikely.) New Jersey: The Garden State has been name-dropped as a possible Dem target for redistricting. But it's far-fetched that it would happen before 2026. The state constitution doesn't allow for mid-decade changes to the map. There's an exception if a court determines the lines are unlawful, but that's unlikely, POLITICO's Madison Fernandez tells us. Amending the state constitution is a lengthy process, and Dems wouldn't have much time to get an amendment in front of voters this fall due to state deadlines. Such a move could also be politically risky ahead of this November's elections for governor and state assembly. How seriously should you take it? It's a nonstarter, Madison tells us. Indiana: This one bubbled into the national conversation yesterday, but reporting from your Playbook author — who calls Indiana home — tells us that this is more a trial balloon by Trump world than anything real on the radar of the state's leaders. Republicans last redistricted in 2021, and despite an eager White House looking to potentially push Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan out of his seat near the Chicago suburbs, there is little-to-no appetite for remapping, according to four Hoosier Republicans close to the process. How seriously should you take it? It's possible — particularly if Trump really leans on lawmakers — but there currently is very little interest in it from Indiana legislators. IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID BY THE NUMBERS: A banner week of economic data begins at 8:30 a.m. with the release of second-quarter GDP numbers, after which Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak about the central bank's newest decision on interest rates at 2:30 p.m. Along with major companies' earnings reports, monthly jobs numbers and Trump's tariffs deadline later this week, the next few days will provide a barrage of economic indicators for stock markets to absorb, FT's George Steer previews. Level-setting: One forecast predicts 2.9 percent growth for the GDP report, while the Fed is broadly expected to hold rates steady despite Republican pressure. But central bank policymakers are increasingly divided over the right course of action, with some centrists eyeing possible rate cuts later in the year, as WSJ's Nick Timiraos broke down. All eyes will turn to Powell for any indicators. Countdown to Friday: The bull case for lowering interest rates is that Trump's trade wars have generally had a more muted effect on inflation and the economy than many economists feared. But with Friday looming as his biggest tariff deadline yet, dozens of countries are racing to try to strike deals with the U.S., NYT's Ashley Ahn reports. South Korea, Brazil and Canada are among the most significant trading partners yet to reach agreements. Trump's latest threat came against India: He said the country could face tariffs of 20 to 25 percent if it doesn't land on a deal, per CNN. The ink's not yet dry: In some cases, the fine print isn't even written, as negotiators work to hammer out details of agreements with the EU, China and more. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he'll brief Trump today after wrapping up talks with Chinese negotiators, with the president retaining the final call on whether to extend a partial tariff truce, per Bloomberg. In Europe's case, grand promises of investments in the U.S. that helped persuade Trump to strike a deal appear to be flimsier than meets the eye, NYT's Jeanna Smialek reports. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CNBC that there's 'plenty of horse trading left to do.' The impact: Americans will start to face higher prices for goods as companies sag under the weight of tariffs — as soon as next week, in Procter & Gamble's case, Reuters' David Gaffen and Marleen Kaesebier report. Meanwhile, a number of Republican senators shot down Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-Mo.) idea to send tariff rebate checks to Americans, Semafor's Burgess Everett reports. ON THE HILL YOU BE THE JUDGE: In the end, multiple whistleblower complaints weren't enough to stop the Senate from confirming controversial Trump attack dog Emil Bove to a federal appellate judgeship in a 50-49 vote last night. Only Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) broke ranks. After Bove, the principal associate deputy AG, denied all the allegations — including floating defiance of judicial rulings, misleading senators and improperly axing the corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams — all other Senate Republicans 'provided at least a tacit Senate endorsement of the president's efforts to bend the justice system to his will,' NYT's Devlin Barrett reports. Falling in line: For furious Democrats, the confirmation amounted to a betrayal by Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who was long a champion of whistleblowers. But Republicans roundly dismissed the outrage, with Grassley insisting that he still takes whistleblower complaints seriously. Backing the blue (slip): Trump ramped up the pressure for Senate Republicans to tear through another norm and confirm judges faster. Last night, Trump posted on Truth Social that Grassley should end the blue-slip practice, which allows home-state senators from any party to veto judicial picks. But Grassley indicated that he wouldn't be budged from continuing the practice, POLITICO's Hailey Fuchs and Katherine Tully-McManus report. Nominations now: Beyond just judges, Republican senators are getting ready to sweep aside Democratic tactics that have slow-walked a number of nominations, amid ongoing pressure from Trump, Axios' Stef Kight reports. Among the rules changes the GOP considered at a meeting yesterday: 'Eliminating the cloture votes, imposing shorter time limits on debates, changing which positions require Senate confirmation, allowing more en-bloc votes for nominees and setting Trump up to make recess appointments.' It isn't clear how many confirmations Trump needs before August recess to be satisfied, NOTUS' Ursula Perano and Helen Huiskes write. Today's other big focus: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will mark up Hawley's proposal to ban stock trading by top elected officials. But the White House is pushing senators to vote no because it opposes restrictions on members of the executive branch, Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio and colleagues scooped. Hawley is emphasizing that it wouldn't apply to the president until Trump leaves office, but he had to include the president and VP in the bill to get Democratic support to move the bill out of committee. Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is planning a discharge petition to force a House vote on a ban in September, POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill scooped — a move that is putting Speaker Mike Johnson in a pinch, as our colleagues on Inside Congress cover. More in Congress: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will force doomed votes today on resolutions to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel. … The Senate confirmed Susan Monarez as CDC director, 51-47. … In an unusual dispute on the floor, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) lashed out at fellow Democrats for failing to oppose Trump more forcefully, per Axios. 'We are being complicit,' Booker declared. 'The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call.' He engaged in an angry back-and-forth with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). BEST OF THE REST THE PURGE: As Trump fires swathes of federal workers and makes the government more loyal to him personally, a number of high-profile departures and policy changes are underway: TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: Trump said his new deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a ceasefire in his war on Ukraine would be 10 days hence — i.e. Aug. 8, per Bloomberg. Otherwise, tariffs to punish Russia are coming, Trump said. TODAY AT 1600 PENN: Trump will announce a new initiative in which Oracle, Microsoft and other tech companies will help craft tools to modernize data access for Medicare recipients, CBS' Olivia Rinaldi and Jennifer Jacobs scooped. The project 'would create a system to ease the exchange of patient information.' Trump has a 4 p.m. event on the schedule. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Dem govs handicap 2028: Among Democratic governors at last weekend's meeting of the National Governors Association, there's a sense of swagger, the unsinkable Jonathan Martin reports from Colorado Springs: They believe the party will 'nominate one of their own for president, and win, in 2028.' Who they're betting on: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore 'have emerged as early favorites among their peers,' JMart writes. 'Each was born in the 1970s, each has a promising biography and, why mince words, they're seen as most likely to fulfill the party's overriding criteria: They can win because it's hard for Republicans to portray them as radicals, soft or both.' Who else is in the mix: Their peers are 'fond of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as well as Kentucky's Andy Beshear, if somewhat more skeptical either can claim a nomination and general election. Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer is well-liked … but there are doubts she'll run for president. … They're less enamored with California's Gavin Newsom, to put it mildly, who has never really been part of the governors club.' 2026 WATCH: Pete Hegseth, midterm candidate? The Defense secretary has seriously talked with others about running for office in Tennessee next year, likely for governor, NBC's Gordon Lubold and colleagues scooped. The Pentagon calls it a 'made up story,' and some sources close to Hegseth tell NBC he's not considering it. … Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced that she won't run for Georgia governor, even while criticizing other candidates and saying she could have won, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. … Roy Cooper's entrance into the North Carolina Senate race could help turn it into one of the most expensive of the cycle, POLITICO's Elena Schneider writes. First in Playbook — Crossing the Ohio River: Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno is endorsing businessman Nate Morris in Kentucky as he bids to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Amid Gaza's starvation catastrophe, Trump indicated that the U.S. and Israel would work on a new system to distribute food aid, per the AP, with the U.S. contributing $60 million. Details are scarce. Despite his concern about the crisis, Trump also said it's important not to reward Hamas, and he stayed away from the U.K.'s plan to recognize Palestine as a state if Israel doesn't agree to a ceasefire, per POLITICO's Jacob Wendler. JUDICIARY SQUARE: Yet again, a federal appellate court has dealt a blow to Trump's effort to ban birthright citizenship, per WaPo. The newest lawsuits: California and nearly two dozen more Democratic-led states sued over the GOP domestic policy bill's defunding of Planned Parenthood through Medicaid, POLITICO's Rachel Bluth reports. … Multiple legal groups sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for not enforcing anti-discrimination measures for transgender people, AP's Claire Savage reports. The U.S. attorney fights: As the Trump administration insists Alina Habba will remain U.S. attorney for New Jersey, chaos is engulfing criminal cases in which the defendants argue there is no validly appointed person in the role, per Bloomberg. On the other coast, DOJ is shredding norms too to try to keep Bill Essayli as U.S. attorney without Senate confirmation, the LA Times' Brittny Mejia and colleagues report. Trump is attempting the same ploy with Sigal Chattah in Nevada, Bloomberg Government's Ben Penn scooped. SCHOOL DAZE: The Trump administration's latest collegiate target is Duke University, from which Kennedy and Education Secretary Linda McMahon froze $108 million in funding, Fox News' Charles Creitz scooped. The administration said Duke Health's diversity practices broke civil rights law. … The Justice Department went after UCLA for its handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment, saying the school violated Jewish/Israeli students' civil rights and threatening a lawsuit, per the LA Times' Jaweed Kaleem and Daniel Miller. … Harvard said it'll give DHS I-9 forms for most of its employees, per The Crimson's Samuel Church and Cam Srivastava. THE EPSTEIN FILES: In his latest comments on his falling out with Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said the notorious sexual predator 'stole' Virginia Giuffre and others from Mar-a-Lago, where they'd worked, per ABC. When Epstein kept taking young women out of the spa, 'I said, 'out of here,'' Trump recounted. Meanwhile, an investigation by CBS' Dan Ruetenik of the Epstein jailhouse tapes turns up 'several contradictions between officials' descriptions of the video and the video itself … [which] raises questions about the strength and credibility of the government's investigation' into his suicide. IMMIGRATION FILES: South Sudan may be open to taking in lots more deportees from the U.S. who hail from other countries — but it has steep asks of its own in return, POLITICO's Felicia Schwartz and Myah Ward report. TALK OF THE TOWN PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'Ted Cruz looks to force changes to military flights near airports, after deadly airline crash,' by POLITICO's Oriana Pawlyk: The bill would include 'prohibiting the Army from turning off location-transmitting technologies such as the one under investigation as part of an inquiry into the January midair collision near Washington that killed 67 people. Cruz's announcement comes a day before the kickoff of a three-day federal fact-finding [NTSB] hearing' today into the crash. WHITE HOUSE MOVE — Victoria LaCivita is now regional comms director at the White House. She most recently was comms director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy and is a Michigan GOP/Trump campaign and Jason Miyares alum. MEDIA MOVE — Meghan Rafferty will be VP of news standards at Versant. She most recently has been executive producer of 'NBC Nightly News.' More from Variety TRANSITIONS — The Treasury Department is adding Alley Adcock as deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs, appropriations and management. She most recently was a professional staff member on the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee. Treasury is also moving Hunter McMaster II to be performing the duties of assistant secretary for financial markets and Luke Pettit to acting undersecretary of domestic finance. … The Kennedy Center is adding Emily Flower as a director of PR and Amanda Fischer as a deputy director of PR. Flower previously was comms director for Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Fischer previously was at CRC Advisors. … … Jesse Barba is now head of federal government affairs at Cengage Group. He most recently was head of global government affairs at Chegg Inc., and is a Cassidy & Associates and Marcia Fudge alum. … Terrence Clark has joined Amazon's corporate comms team handling crisis, issues and reputation management. He most recently was senior comms adviser and spokesperson for the Justice Department, and is a Raphael Warnock alum. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Caroline Ponseti, director of comms and public affairs at Invariant, and John Lin, senior counsel at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, welcomed baby George on Friday. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) … MSNBC's Rebecca Kutler and Isaac-Davy Aronson … The Atlantic's Shane Harris … Suzanne Nossel … former Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Quico Canseco (R-Texas) and Wendell Bailey (R-Mo.) … Arnold Schwarzenegger … Dave Kochel … NYT's Jim Rutenberg … Michael Glassner … Mario Lopez of the Hispanic Leadership Fund … Michelle Bernard … POLITICO's Teresa Wiltz, Jeff Coltin and Tyler Weyant … Jonathan Kanter … Education Week's Lauraine Langreo … Brad Jenkins … Heidi Crebo-Rediker … Glen Chambers … Mark Beatty of Google … Jonathan Spalter of USTelecom … Bob Bissen of the National Head Start Association … Candace Randle Person … Alex Parker of Eide Bailly … Kana Smith … Emily Barson … Michael Short … Anita Hill … former CFTC Chair Tim Massad … Bill O'Leary of Heidrick & Struggles … Garry Malphrus … Ben Marter of Plus Communications … Sintia Radu … Eleanor Smeal … Herald Group's Cameron Smith … Davey McKissick of Glen Echo Group … Nora Langan … Maggie Cutrell … Maryland GOP Vice Chair Dwight Patel … April Arnold of True North Risk Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
The Hill
24-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Senate punts on Ingrassia, controversial nominee to lead Office of Special Counsel
A Senate panel punted its consideration of Paul Ingrassia amid concerns about the controversial nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel. Ingrassia was slated for a confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC), but his name was quietly removed from the agenda. Ingrassia, a former podcast host, has made a series of controversial remarks praising right-wing figures and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. 'I'm relieved to see that Paul Ingrassia, the nominee to run the Office of Special Counsel, has been pulled from today's hearing. The Office of Special Counsel is an independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices involving federal employees, including whistleblower retaliation,' Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the committee, said during his opening remarks. 'Mr. Ingrassia is unqualified for the position, both in terms of legal experience and given his long record of bigoted statements. And I urge the administration to formally withdraw his nomination.' A White House official said they do not plan to do so. 'Paul Ingrassia is still the nominee and is currently serving in his role as White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. He will spend the next month speaking with Senators and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed. The President has full confidence in him and his ability to lead the Office of Special Counsel,' an administration official told The Hill. In 2020, Ingrassia said it was 'time for @realDonaldTrump to declare martial law and secure his re-election.' He also said in December that President Trump should 'offer reparations to the tune of $1 million per family (at least)' for Jan. 6 defendants. Those remarks run afoul of a pledge by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who said he plans to oppose any Trump nominee that expressed support for Jan. 6. 'The guy's got the exact wrong rap sheet to get my support,' Tillis told The Washington Examiner. "It's January 6th, it's a number of other things. So, I think he's one of these people that's checked all the boxes and they're all the wrong boxes," he told NBC News. 'It's pretty apparent to me he's not ready for prime time, but he's young, he's got plenty of time to learn,' Tillis said. Ingrassia is a former writer for the Daily Caller who graduated from law school in 2021. Beyond his comments on Jan. 6, Ingrassia served on the legal team representing self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, describing him as 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. The role of special counsel serves many purposes. It's an office where whistleblowers can file complaints and federal workers can go for help if they feel they've been wrongfully terminated. It also investigates violations of Hatch Act prohibitions on electioneering. Trump fired prior special counsel Hampton Dellinger despite his being confirmed to a five-year term after being nominated by President Biden. During his brief time under the Trump administration, Dellinger challenged the widespread firings of probationary workers hired or promoted within the last year or two. Dellinger launched a legal challenge to remain in his post and was briefly reinstalled by the courts, but he resigned from the role when an appeals court determined he could not stay on the job as the case continued.
The Intercept
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Intercept
Project 2025 Data Leak Shows a Paul Ingrassia Calling for Test for Voting and Halting Immigration
In 2024, as Donald Trump's reelection campaign gathered steam, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 had its eye on staffing a new Republican administration. The initiative, which was designed around crafting an agenda for an incoming Trump White House, put out a call for aspiring administration officials. The application, including multiple-choice questions and open-ended queries, sought to place would-be Trump apparatchiks on the political spectrum and suss out their political priorities. One of the people who filled the form out entered a name that would echo through the first six months of Trump's new term: Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia is set to land a powerful job as head of the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel. Now, pending a Senate hearing this week, Ingrassia is set to land a powerful job as head of the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel. Among other responsibilities related to the federal workforce, the office is supposed to protect whistleblowers and keep partisan politics out of the civil service. For Ingrassia's critics, he would be just the wrong person to lead OSC. The Project 2025 questionnaire answers given under Ingrassia's name would appear to bolster the case that the applicant's primary concern is loyalty to Trump and sharp-elbowed partisan politics. The responses include allusions to severely cutting down federal agencies because of their 'toxic ideologies'; halting immigration; and imposing a new test for voting. (Ingrassia did not respond to a request for comment.) A leaked dataset of the Project 2025 application questionnaires was released in June by the group Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets. An analysis of the leaked data showed that more than 13,000 people had filled out the applications. (Heritage did not respond to a request for comment.) DDoSecrets redacted the full entries for applicants but provided The Intercept with an unredacted version. The contact information and other personal data included in the Project 2025 file matched Paul Ingrassia's information. On July 24, Ingrassia will face a confirmation hearing in the Senate — and good government groups are opposing his bid. 'As head of OSC, the special counsel should be someone who respects federal workers, who will treat them fairly and without bias,' a group of 24 civil society groups led by the Project on Government Oversight wrote in an open letter to Senators opposing Ingrassia's nomination. 'The special counsel must be a person who will exercise their duties in a nonpartisan manner, a person of honesty and integrity who has the necessary experience to fulfill such an important role.' 'Paul Ingrassia is none of these.' Ingrassia has advocated for the arrest of the president's political enemies, said that Democrats are a threat to democracy, and labeled Republicans who disagree with him as RINOs — a derisive acronym meaning 'Republicans in Name Only.' In the Project 2025 questionnaire filled out under the name Paul Ingrassia, the respondent agreed that 'the President should be able to advance his/her agenda through the bureaucracy without hinderance from unelected federal officials.' A response to a prompt about which political issue he was most passionate about and why included a long list of pet projects. 'I'm passionate about restructuring the administrative state, condensing the size and scope of the various bureaucratic agencies, defunding many of them, given how destructive they and their toxic ideologies have been on the American way of life; reform and shut down many of the intelligence agencies; fully upend the justice department; reform the courts; redesign Washington, D.C., and build an even better city in its wake,' the Project 2025 applicant wrote. The questionnaire also asked respondents to 'name one living public policy figure whom you greatly admire and why.' The response — Trump and Pat Buchanan — lacked an explanation. When asked to 'name one person, past or present, who has most influenced the development of your political philosophy,' the data under Paul Ingrassia's name said 'Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Donald Trump.' The answer to the question about what issues the applicant was passionate about said: I'm also very passionate about immigration — specifically, ending birthright citizenship, deporting all illegals and thinking about economic, other ways, to incentivize them to self-deport, building the wall and militarizing it with state of the art technology, personnel; instating a moratorium on all immigration, and revising the tests for citizenship, voting, other basic privileges of American life. Long before his stint in government, Ingrassia was a right-wing firebrand. A 30-year-old lawyer and right-wing commentator, he has referred to himself as 'Trump's favorite Substacker' and spent years writing articles praising Trump. He has ties to far-right figures and those with fringe beliefs. Last summer, Ingrassia appeared at a rally organized by far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes, whom Ingrassia has advocated for in the past. He also has a relationship with Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a January 6 rioter who the Justice Department called a 'Nazi sympathizer.' Ingrassia's social media has included 9/11 conspiracy theories and support for Alex Jones, who gained notoriety for denying children were murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. He graduated from Cornell Law in 2022. In 2023, Ingrassia worked for McBride Law, a firm that represented far-right influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate when they were facing allegations of rape and human trafficking in Romania and the United Kingdom. The firm filed a defamation lawsuit against one of their accusers that summer. (The Tate brothers have consistently denied these allegations. Proceedings are ongoing in both countries.) Ingrassia was not legally allowed to practice or market himself as a lawyer at the time; the firm referred to him as an Ivy League-educated associate attorney working on the case. He sat for the bar in July 2023 and was admitted to practice in New York on July 30, 2024. After McBride, he worked as a communications director for the conservative nonprofit National Constitutional Law Union and occasionally wrote articles for the right-wing site Gateway Pundit. He left both positions after taking a job in January as a presidential liaison to the Department of Justice in January. After a few months, however, he was reassigned from the Justice Department to another agency amid reports of administration infighting. Reporting from ABC suggested his advocacy for the department to hire John Pierce, his old boss at the National Constitutional Law Union, played a role. Pierce represented many January 6 rioters. During his time as a criminal defense attorney, Pierce failed to show up to court, sent in a co-counsel who wasn't authorized to practice law, forgot how many clients he had, and was fired by multiple defendants. According to ABC, Ingrassia wanted Pierce to run the pardon office at the Justice Department. Now, with his elevation to the Office of Special Counsel, Ingrassia could be back at the Justice Department.
CNN
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Trump's pick to lead whistleblower office shared 9/11 truther video
The man President Donald Trump wants to put in charge of protecting whistleblowers – and rooting out government corruption – is a 30-year-old lawyer with barely a year of government experience and a history of racist invective, conspiratorial rants, and affinity for a well-known White nationalist and Holocaust denier. Paul Ingrassia, whom Trump nominated in late May to lead the Office of Special Counsel, brands himself as 'President Trump's favorite writer' after Trump shared his comments close to 100 times last year on social media. Admitted to the bar only last summer, Ingrassia, 30, held a brief White House internship during Trump's first term. This year, Ingrassia first worked as a White House liaison at the Justice Department before reportedly being pushed out and reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security, where he helps with staffing the agency. Now, Ingrassia is up for a much bigger job leading the approximately 110-person OSC. Created after the Watergate scandal, the office has for nearly 50 years been the US government's one-stop shop for whistleblowers and alleged ethics violations. The five-year term for the job is structured to span multiple administrations, designed specifically to operate independently from the White House. It also requires Senate confirmation. Ingrassia has yet to be scheduled for a confirmation hearing, leaving US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to continue serving in the role in an acting capacity. Ingrassia would mark a sharp departure from previous heads of the OSC, a role designed to be politically independent and protect whistleblowers from retaliation. Rather than a long record of managerial or prosecutorial experience, typical of those who previously held the job, Ingrassia brings a fervent loyalty to Trump and a lengthy record of inflammatory statements, only a small portion of which have been previously reported. CNN's KFile reviewed hundreds of Ingrassia's comments between 2019 and 2024, including his social media, his appearances on far-right podcasts, and archived conversations from X Spaces, a livestreamed audio chat room that allows users to host or join real-time discussions. Last year, on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ingrassia shared a video of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claiming the US government planned the attacks or let them happen, with Jones boasting in his tweet, 'I've been exposing 9/11 since before it even happened.' Ingrassia had defended Jones several months earlier, writing, 'WE ALL STAND WITH ALEX JONES!!' in June 2024. He was commenting on a video of Jones crying on his broadcast over fears that his InfoWars media platform could be shut down due to $1.5 billion in judgments against Jones for spreading false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. Ingrassia and his podcast's X account have also shared comments from notorious White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Ingrassia has argued publicly that 'straight White men' are the most intelligent demographic group and should be prioritized in education. He once co-hosted a podcast that called for martial law and secession after Trump's 2020 defeat if all legal efforts failed. On the night of January 6, 2021, the podcast account also posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy, reading, 'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, (will) make violent revolution inevitable.' Ingrassia, a longtime defender of January 6 participants, was later present for the release of convicted January 6 rioters after Trump commuted their sentences. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security dismissed CNN's reporting as an 'attempted smear campaign' but did not respond to a detailed list of questions or refute any of the documented comments or associations. A DHS spokesperson said Ingrassia 'has served President Trump and Secretary Noem exceptionally well at the Department of Homeland Security and will continue to do so as the next head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.' The White House also provided a statement of support for Ingrassia, and DHS sent a statement from an unnamed senior administration official saying, 'He has the support of many Jewish groups, and has been a steadfast advocate for Jewish causes and personnel thus far during his time working for the Trump administration.' When CNN requested a list of names of the 'many Jewish groups' referenced, the spokesperson replied with two names, The Holocaust Council - which does not appear to have a website - and Mort Klein, of the Zionist Organization of America. As early as 2019, when he was 24, Ingrassia positioned himself as a tenacious pro-Trump commentator online, slowly building a following by lobbing insults at Trump's Republican rivals and parroting many of the president's grievances. After graduating from Cornell Law School in 2022, Ingrassia mostly worked with conservative organizations and as a law clerk at The McBride Law Firm, best known for representing January 6 defendants. Ingrassia contributed as a writer for the conspiracy blog Gateway Pundit, twice served as a fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute, and served on the Board of Advisors for the New York Young Republican Club. He was also communications director for the conservative National Constitutional Law Union – which bills itself as a counter to the ACLU. Ingrassia is perhaps best known for his Substack, which was repeatedly shared by Trump on his Truth Social platform. A review of Trump's Truth Social account found that he mentioned Ingrassia close to 100 times in 2024. Ingrassia wrote glowingly about the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year, but stopped writing on his Substack shortly after CNN's KFile revealed he shared a post arguing for martial law to keep Trump in office back in 2020. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Ingrassia built his brand as a partisan bomb-thrower, attacking Trump's political rivals often in crude, inflammatory, and racially charged terms in the last two years. Ingrassia referred to former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley as an 'insufferable bitch,' mocking her full name in racially-charged taunts. He wrote a well-publicized blog post falsely alleging that Haley could not serve as president or vice president because her parents were not US citizens at the time of her birth. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was also a frequent target. Ingrassia branded him with nicknames like 'DeSatan,' 'DeMeatball,' and 'Dehomo.' He also went after DeSantis' wife, Casey, and his spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, calling them both 'harlots.' He reposted a tweet that said Kamala Harris should 'seek a kitchen job, not POTUS.' He mocked Harris' campaign appearances, writing, 'Sounds like she decided to be black again!' On X, Ingrassia was a frequent contributor to Spaces, a live audio chatroom. In one conversation in March 2023 on education, Ingrassia said education reform should prioritize straight White men. 'You'd be focused on getting – maximizing – getting your top students and focusing on elevating the high IQ section of your demographics. So, you know, basically young men, straight White men, in particular, would have to be the focus,' said Ingrassia. CNN has also found that Ingrassia has deeper ties than previously known to white nationalist figure and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He blasted the decision to ban Fuentes from the platform X and argued to reinstate him in an April 2023 Substack post titled 'Free Nick Fuentes.' Just a week earlier, Ingrassia was a participant in a 24-hour X Space hosted by the antisemitic anonymous account Chief Trumpster that advertised an interview with Fuentes. Speaking before Fuentes went on an anti-Israel rant, Ingrassia attacked the conservative organization Turning Point USA, which itself is a frequent target of criticism from Fuentes and his organization, the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), for being what they called too pro-Israel and insufficiently pro-White. In June 2024, Ingrassia was photographed in attendance at a rally in support of Fuentes in Detroit by The Intercept's Amanda Moore, who tracks the far-right via her Substack 'The Turtle Diaries.' Fuentes was in Detroit for the annual America First Political Action Conference, which holds its conference at the same time as Turning Point USA's conference, which Ingrassia's Twitter feed shows he attended. Ingrassia disputed to The Intercept and NPR in May that his attendance at the rally was intentional. 'I had no knowledge of who organized the event, observed for 5-10 minutes, then left,' he told NPR. Footage reviewed and obtained by CNN shows he was there listening to speakers ahead of Fuentes' arrival and shows him moving to the front to see Fuentes as he enters, appearing to smile. Ingrassia later can be seen leaving the rally with a woman after several minutes. And less than a day earlier, Ingrassia was defending Fuentes on his public X account after the White nationalist was denied entry to TPUSA's conference –- calling Fuentes being kicked out of the event 'not good' and an 'awful decision' in tweets. There is also evidence that Ingrassia agreed with some of the critiques of Turning Point USA and possibly the group's support of Israel. In the April 2023 Twitter Space that advertised the interview with Fuentes, Ingrassia criticized TPUSA for not being 'based' enough –- a slang term often used to signal agreement or approval for right-wing ideas – and claimed the organization was ineffective at winning elections. There is also a history of anti-Israel sentiment in posts from Ingrassia's podcast, 'Right on Point,' that mirrored anti-Israel rhetoric on the far-right. On December 22, 2020, the podcast's now-deleted Twitter account posted, 'Stop shilling for Israel, @GOP,' and criticized US foreign aid with a tweet falsely stating, 'The $500 trillion to Israel adds salt to the wound,' according to a review of deleted tweets obtained by CNN. The account also commented on three tweets from Fuentes regarding alleged fraud in the 2020 election and tweeted at him twice. One of the tweets from the podcast quote tweeted Fuentes' writing of the need to 'destroy the GOP' to make a true 'America First' party in December. The account added in a comment that it was time for Trump to declare martial law to secure his reelection.
Reuters
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US farm agency finds safety issues at top research site after whistleblower complaints
WASHINGTON, June 26 - The Department of Agriculture found significant safety issues at its top U.S. research facility in an investigation of 2023 whistleblower complaints about the state of the site, the Office of Special Counsel said in a letter sent to the White House. The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., is the agency's flagship research site spanning nearly 7,000 acres (2,833 hectares) and houses labs studying climate change, invasive insects, animal genomics and more. Reuters exclusively reported in May 2023 that BARC workers had filed complaints that unsafe work conditions, ranging from broken fire alarms and ventilation systems to wild indoor temperature swings, were impeding research and endangering staff. Experts have warned that declining government investment in agricultural research threatens the U.S. position as a leading agricultural innovator. The investigation, ordered by the Office of Special Counsel in 2023, substantiated many of the whistleblower allegations and found "pervasive safety deficiencies," including excess grime, damaged flooring, mold and a lack of potable water, according to a letter sent from the OSC to President Donald Trump on Wednesday. The poor condition of the facility was caused by inadequate funding, understaffing, a lack of necessary tools and equipment and the absence of a maintenance plan, the letter said. The investigation did not find that the poor conditions were hindering research, the letter said. BARC workers told Reuters of incidents including a plumbing leak in 2022 that had ruined records and data and that issues such as inoperable fire alarms pulled staff time away from research to conduct fire patrols and other tasks. The agency has taken some corrective actions to address the issues, including hiring a new director for the facility and drafting a plan to move employees to fewer and more modernized buildings on the site, the letter said. Trump's administration has proposed to cut funds to USDA research agencies and the agency's research arm has lost hundreds of staff under efforts to shrink the cost and size of the federal government.
