Latest news with #RightonPoint
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump taps right-wing lawyer, former podcast host to lead the Office of Special Counsel
During Donald Trump's first term, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel was a routine annoyance. The OSC — not to be confused with appointed special counsels such as Jack Smith or Robert Mueller — frequently investigated allegations of misconduct and ethical lapses at the White House, which led to multiple findings related to Hatch Act violations. The president was apparently determined to bring the office to heel in his second term, which is why he fired Hampton Dellinger as the head of an independent ethics agency just a couple of weeks after his inaugural. This touched off a legal fight, which the White House ultimately won, and offered Trump an opportunity to choose a new OSC chief. We now know that he made an indefensible choice. In an item posted to his social media platform late Thursday, the president announced plans to nominate Paul Ingrassia to lead the office, describing Ingrassia, the current White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, as 'a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar.' That can charitably be described as an incomplete description of what makes Ingrassia notable. The Washington Post reported: Ingrassia ... has publicly advocated for white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, publishing a Substack titled 'Free Nick Fuentes' and writing on X that 'dissident voices' such as Fuentes should have a place in conservative politics. He was also part of a legal team representing self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and forming an organized-crime group in Romania, as well as rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, Ingrassia likened Tate to 'the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence.' What's more, as The New York Times reported, Ingrassia also hosted a podcast, called 'Right on Point,' and in December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of his election defeat, the podcast posted on Twitter that it was time for outgoing Republican president 'to declare martial law and secure his re-election.' In case that weren't quite enough, a CNN report from earlier this year noted that Ingrassia's podcast account also posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy the night of the Jan. 6 attack that read, 'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, (will) make violent revolution inevitable.' The same CNN piece added, 'Ingrassia's tweets have likened Pence to Brutus and Judas, saying he belongs in the 'ninth circle of hell.' He has repeatedly called for expelling 'traitors' from the GOP.' The Atlantic noted that Ingrassia has called Nikki Haley, Donald Trump's former United Nations ambassador who ran against him, in the Republican primary, an 'insufferable b---h' who might be an 'anchor baby' too. After Trump announced his selection — which will require Senate confirmation — Ingrassia said online that he intends to 'make every effort to restore competence and integrity to the Executive Branch ... and Revitalize the Rule of Law.' Given his radical background, that seems extraordinarily unlikely. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump Grants Watchdog Role To Host Of Podcast That Promoted 'Martial Law,' 'Secession'
President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Paul Ingrassia, a 30-year-old former right-wing podcast host, to head the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency in charge of protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing ethics rules. Ingrassia's brief tenure in the Trump administration began earlier this year with a liaison role between the White House and Justice Department, including attending the release of some Capitol rioters in January. He was reportedly reassigned after clashing with another official over 'loyalty' to Trump and currently serves as the White House's liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. For several years, Ingrassia hosted a podcast with his sister, Olivia Ingrassia, called 'Right on Point,' which featured discussions with right-wing political commentators and appears to have ended in June 2020. A Twitter account promoting the podcast, however, tweeted on: In December 2020, amid Trump's increasingly desperate battle to cling to the office of the presidency, the account posted that it was 'time' for Trump to 'declare martial law and secure his re-election.' The same month, the account said that 'secession is the ONLY option for true Americans' if Trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election failed. 'Support martial law,' the account tweeted at another point. CNN's KFile was first to report on the alarming history of Paul Ingrassia's podcast in February. In his Truth Social announcement, Trump praised Ingrassia as a 'highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar' with a law degree from Cornell. If confirmed by the Senate, Ingrassia would lead the Office of Special Counsel that was recently vacated by President Joe Biden appointee Hampton Dellinger. Trump quietly fired Dellinger just days after returning to the White House. The move kicked off a legal battle that led Dellinger to be temporarily reinstated before an appeals court sided with Trump on the firing, ending Dellinger's nascent investigations into the abrupt firings of thousands of federal government employees. The OSC is not related to the individual special counsels that investigated Trump's links to Russian interference in the 2016 election, his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and other alleged crimes — although it has a similar name. Trump Is Turning The Border Into A Military Base. Here's What I Learned From A U.S. Army Tour. Trump's Obsession With Being A Top-Notch 'Deal Maker' Is Making America Weaker The Trump Admin Is Reportedly Embracing The Far-Right, Racist Concept Of Remigration
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Latest DHS hire called for "martial law" after Trump lost the 2020 election
The Trump administration has tapped a 29-year-old lawyer who called for "martial law" to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election to act as its point-man to the Department of Homeland Security, acting as a liaison between the White House and DHS as well as oversee political appointments at the department. The man, Paul Ingrassia, held a similar post with the Justice Department before he was reportedly pushed out following clashes with the department's chief of staff. According to ABC News, while at DOJ Ingrassia had pushed for only hiring candidate who display "exceptional loyalty" to the president. Before working in the Trump administration, Ingrassia co-hosted a podcast called 'Right on Point," which also had an active Twitter (now X) account, using that platform to spread conspiracy theories and propose radical actions to support a right-wing political agenda. Following Trump's defeat to former President Joe Biden in 2020, the Twitter account urged "secession" if courts ruled against Trump's election fraud lawsuits and made numerous posts calling followers to "support martial law." The posts were first uncovered by CNN. 'Time for @realDonaldTrump to declare martial law and secure his re-election! It's the only way,' the podcast's account posted in December 2020 in a now-deleted post. Many of its tweets in the weeks prior to Biden's inauguration branded Republicans as traitors, likening former Vice President Mike Pence to Judas and Brutus and suggesting that he belongs in the "ninth circle of hell." When right-wing commentator Seb Gorka — a former aide in Trump's first term who now serves as a deputy assistant to the president — pushed back on a post that called for Pence to be shot by a firing squad, the account responded by calling him "soft." Four days after the Gorka tweet, Ingrassia shared a blog post from his podcast that urged Trump to use emergency powers to stay in the White House, claiming he had a "moral imperative" to uphold election security by ordering a re-vote in some states, all overseen by the military. The proposal is unconstitutional per the 20th Amendment. 'To that end, a martial law orchestrated revote in at least the four defendant-states in the quashed Texas lawsuit: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin is needed,' Ingrassia wrote. Trump showed favor to Ingrassia by reposting his articles; the newly-minted DHS liaison, in return, declared in his social media bio that he is 'President Trump's favorite writer.'
CNN
26-02-2025
- Politics
- CNN
White House point man at Homeland Security shared ‘martial law option' post to keep Trump in office
The Trump administration's new point man for dealings with the Department of Homeland Security is a former far-right podcast host and election denier who once shared an article calling for 'martial law' to keep Donald Trump in office following his loss in the 2020 election. Paul Ingrassia and the Twitter account for a podcast he co-hosted posted the remark and similar sentiments on social media in December 2020 and January 2021, according to a CNN KFile review of deleted and still-active posts by Ingrassia himself and the account of the podcast. The 29-year-old Ivy League-educated lawyer now serves as the second Trump administration's White House liaison to the DHS, a key role that has historically involved managing the administration's relationship with the department and overseeing the placement of political appointees. Since assuming the White House role, Ingrassia was present for the release of prisoners convicted of crimes for the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and, according to The New York Times, had an office near Attorney General Pam Bondi while he was briefly at the Justice Department. CNN reached out to Ingrassia, his podcast's co-host, the White House, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not receive a response. On Monday, ABC News reported that Ingrassia was pushed out of the Justice Department as liaison following clashes between him and the chief of staff over pushing to hire candidates with 'exceptional loyalty' to the president. CNN confirmed that Ingrassia is no longer at the Justice Department and his LinkedIn profile now lists him at Homeland Security. Ingrassia graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and during the 2024 Republican presidential primary published a discredited theory that candidate Nikki Haley was not a natural born citizen and not eligible to be president. The claim was later boosted by Trump on Truth Social. Ingrassia later called Haley an 'insufferable bitch,' in a recently deleted January 2024 tweet. Prior to his role in government, his comments on Twitter (now known as X) and the 'Right on Point' podcast he co-hosted with his sister echoed some of the most extreme election denial rhetoric of the time. The podcast's Twitter account – which Ingrassia linked to episode descriptions, his Twitter, and a Parler account he made in December 2020 – sent tweets in December 2020 calling for 'secession' if court cases meant to keep Trump in office failed and numerous tweets calling to 'support martial law.' 'Time for @realDonaldTrump to declare martial law and secure his re-election! It's the only way,' the podcast's account posted in December 2020 in a since-deleted tweet. In the days leading up to the Capitol riot, Ingrassia publicly mocked conservatives who opposed violent measures to keep Trump in power. The podcast account also posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy the night of January 6, 2021, reading, 'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, (will) make violent revolution inevitable.' In one post from January 2, 2021, Ingrassia called right-wing commentator Seb Gorka 'soft' after Gorka rebuked a post that called for then-Vice President Mike Pence to be arrested and executed by firing squad for not supporting attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Both Ingrassia and the podcast have embraced rhetoric branding fellow Republicans as traitors. Ingrassia's tweets have likened Pence to Brutus and Judas, saying he belongs in the 'ninth circle of hell.' He has repeatedly called for expelling 'traitors' from the GOP. The 'Right on Point' podcast's social media similarly demanded purges of so-called 'traitors' from the Republican Party, including then-Attorney General Bill Barr in December 2020, whom the podcast labeled a 'Bush-affiliated neocon of the Washington swamp,' – and whom Ingrassia has also labeled a 'traitor' and disparaged as being part of the Washington, DC, 'swamp.' Four days after the Gorka tweet, Ingrassia shared a blog post from his podcast that argued for the 'martial law option' to keep Trump in power, urging him to use emergency powers to delay Joe Biden's inauguration. The post claimed Trump had a 'moral imperative' to ensure election security and called for a military-run re-vote in key battleground states where he had challenged the results. The blog post was signed by the pseudonym Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus - an early Roman Republic statesman whom Ingrassia has referenced publicly in tweets and blog posts. The blog post also contained other references to ancient Rome, including a picture of a statue of the first Roman emperor Augustus that Ingrassia later shared in a 2023 tweet and images of the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus – the latter of whom Ingrassia has publicly compared to former Vice President Mike Pence. 'To that end, a martial law orchestrated revote in at least the four defendant-states in the quashed Texas lawsuit: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin is needed,' the post read. The blog post also suggested the president 'should use his emergency powers to postpone Inauguration Day' until a special counsel concludes an investigation into election fraud. This proposal is unconstitutional. The 20th Amendment of the constitution asserts that the new term of each elected president begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. In the weeks after the election, Ingrassia's podcast changed its name on X from 'Right on Point' to 'STOP THE STEAL HQ' and began selling signs for what it said was Trump's legal defense. Trump repeatedly reposted articles Ingrassia wrote for the far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit on his Truth Social page. Ingrassia himself declares in his social media bio that he is 'President Trump's favorite writer.' CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this story.
