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Paul Ingrassia (lawyer)

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Paul Ingrassia
Official portrait, 2025
Special Counsel of the United States
Nominee
Assuming office
PresidentDonald Trump
SucceedingHampton Dellinger
Personal details
Born
Paul J. Ingrassia

(1995-05-13) May 13, 1995 (age 30)
Political partyRepublican
Education

Paul J. Ingrassia (born May 13, 1995) is an American attorney and political commentator who has served as the White House liaison to the United States Department of Homeland Security since 2025. Ingrassia served as the White House liaison to the Department of Justice from January to February 2025.

Ingrassia studied mathematics and economics at Fordham University. After graduating, his writing appeared in National Review,[1] Human Events,[2] and The Daily Caller, and he also co-hosted a podcast. Ingrassia later attended Cornell Law School and worked for Kasowitz Benson Torres and Joseph D. McBride, the lawyers representing Andrew Tate.[3] At Cornell, Ingrassia served as senior online editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. He established a Substack page that President Donald Trump has frequently cited, including a false claim that Nikki Haley was not eligible to serve as president. Trump has shared Ingrassia's comments roughly a hundred times on social media.[4]

In January 2025, Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, named Ingrassia as the White House liaison to the Department of Justice. Amid a dispute with Chad Mizelle, attorney general Pam Bondi's chief of staff, Ingrassia was reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security the following month. In May, Trump named Ingrassia as his nominee for special counsel of the United States. His appointment was postponed following public backlash over his lack of legal experience, association with neo-Nazis, and prior comments denigrating federal workers.[5]

Early life and education

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A building behind a green field and trees.
Cornell Law School, where Ingrassia studied (pictured in 2011)

Paul J. Ingrassia[6] was born on May 13, 1995.[7] Ingrassia graduated from Fordham University with a degree in mathematics and economics.[8] He graduated from Cornell Law School in May 2022.[9] Ingrassia served as the senior online editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.[10]

Career

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Political activities (2018–present)

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While attending law school, Ingrassia wrote for The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit. He was twice named as a fellow at the Claremont Institute.[11] Ingrassia interned at the White House in Donald Trump's first presidency.[12] He is a New York Young Republican.[13] By 2024, Ingrassia had led communications at National Constitutional Law Union, a self-described counterfirm to the American Civil Liberties Union.[9]

Ingrassia co-hosted a podcast, Right on Point (2018–2020), with his sister, Olivia Ingrassia, a recent law graduate of NYU.[14] The podcast's Spotify page expressed support for the "timeless ideas" of William F. Buckley Jr. and Russell Kirk, among other conservative writers.[10] Ingrassia has maintained a Substack that was read by Trump as early as April 2024, according to Politico Magazine;[15] he has described his blog as "President Trump's favorite Substack".[16] In January, he falsely claimed that Nikki Haley was ineligible to serve as president as neither of her parents were born in the United States, citing a post from the far-right political activist Laura Loomer. The claim was repeated by Trump.[13] According to CNN in 2025, Trump had shared Ingrassia's comments "close to 100 times last year on social media."[4]

Ingrassia has written for National Review,[1] American Greatness,[17] Human Events,[2] and The American Conservative.[18] His scholarly work has appeared in publications including the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy,[10] The Federal Lawyer,[19] and Virginia Law & Business Review.[20]

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From 2021 to 2023, Ingrassia worked for Kasowitz Benson Torres. For several months in 2023, he worked for Joseph D. McBride's law firm, The McBride Law Firm, representing clients accused of having participated in the January 6 Capitol attack.[9]

As noted in The Daily Dot, Ingrassia's varied the way he represented his title and position at The McBride Law Firm, referring to himself as an "Associate Attorney," an "Associate," and a "Law Clerk" at various times on his personal Substack blog and social media channels in the period before he was admitted to the bar in New York.[21]

Despite not being a member of the bar, Ingrassia purported to represent Andrew Tate in his legal affairs.[14] A press release from The McBride Law Firm issued July 19, 2023 called Ingrassia an Associate Attorney and member of Andrew Tate's "Legal Team."[21]

Ingrassia was admitted to the New York bar as an attorney on July 30, 2024.[22]

White House liaison (2025–present)

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Ingrassia at the D.C. Central Detention Facility on January 20, 2025 as pardoned January 6 U.S. Capitol riot defendants are released

In January 2025,[23] Ingrassia was appointed as the Trump administration's liaison to the Department of Justice by Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general.[24] He was present for the release of pardoned January 6 Capitol attack defendants jailed in the D.C. Jail.[23] His tenure marked a pursuit to find candidates loyal to Trump, including calling for employees who worked for attorneys general Merrick Garland or William Barr to be fired. Amid a dispute with Chad Mizelle, attorney general Pam Bondi's chief of staff, Ingrassia was reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security the following month, according to ABC News.[9]

Special Counsel of the United States

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On May 29, 2025, Trump named Ingrassia as his nominee for special counsel of the United States, succeeding Hampton Dellinger, who was dismissed as special counsel in February.[14] Trump discussed the nomination on social media, and described Ingrassia as an "attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar."[25][10] His nomination was opposed by more than 20 federal employee unions, professional associations, and good government groups for his prior comments labeling federal workers as "parasites" and "bugmen" who "leech of the diminishing lifeblood of the dying republic" along with prior writings supporting at-will firings of civil servants by the president.[26] On July 24, a senate panel to consider his nomination was postponed following public backlash over his lack of legal experience, association with neo-Nazis, and record of denigrating public workers.[5]

Views

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Ingrassia has advocated for the First Amendment, particularly in regards to "dissident voices" within conservative environments. In an essay for the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, he criticized the closeness between politics and corporations.[10] Following the 2020 presidential election, Ingrassia called for Trump to declare martial law and called for secession if efforts to overturn the election failed. He denounced Sebastian Gorka for rebuking a post that called for vice president Mike Pence—whom Ingrassia has compared to well-known traitors Marcus Junius Brutus and Judas Iscariot—to be arrested and hanged.[27]

Ingrassia has advocated for the far-right political pundit Nick Fuentes, describing him in a post on Substack as among several "dissident voices" who should be integrated within conservative politics.[8] He has called for reparations from the descendants of slaves to the descendants of slave owners.[28]

Ingrassia has referred to the October 7 attacks as a psychological operation.[29]

In July 2025, a leaked application memo by Ingrassia to Project 2025 included his support for stopping immigration, imposing voting tests, and cutting down the workforce at federal agencies because of "toxic ideologies".[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Paul Ingrassia". National Review. Archived from the original on September 5, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Ingrassia, Paul (June 10, 2019). "Exiling David French's Conservatism". Human Events. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  3. ^ "Trump White House lawyer wasn't actually an attorney when firm said he represented Andrew Tate".
  4. ^ a b Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em; Abdelwahab, Dalia (July 2, 2025). "Trump's pick to lead whistleblower office shared 9/11 truther video". CNN. Archived from the original on July 2, 2025. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  5. ^ a b Wagner, Erich (July 24, 2025). "Trump's controversial OSC nominee pulled from confirmation hearing". Government Executive. Retrieved July 28, 2025. A Senate panel that was set to consider President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as U.S. Special Counsel announced Thursday that Paul Ingrassia's appearance before the committee had been postponed, after the 28-year-old's lack of legal experience, association with neo-Nazis and an extensive public record of denigrating federal workers produced widespread outcry.
  6. ^ Paul J Ingrassia in the U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019.
  7. ^ Ingrassia 2024.
  8. ^ a b Tucker & Vinall 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d Faulders, Levine & Mallin 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d e Rosen 2025.
  11. ^ "Trump nominates far-right blogger to lead government agency that protects whistle-blowers". The Guardian.
  12. ^ Cai 2023.
  13. ^ a b Pengelly 2024.
  14. ^ a b c Newman 2025.
  15. ^ McGraw 2024.
  16. ^ Ulloa 2024.
  17. ^ "Author: Paul Ingrassia › American Greatness". American Greatness. Archived from the original on June 3, 2025. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  18. ^ "Paul Ingrassia". The American Conservative. June 6, 2022. Archived from the original on May 16, 2025. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  19. ^ "2022 John Marshall Fellows". The Claremont Institute. Archived from the original on December 15, 2024. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  20. ^ "Volume 16". Virginia Law & Business Review. Archived from the original on August 18, 2024. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  21. ^ a b Moore, Amanda (March 13, 2025). "EXCLUSIVE: Trump White House lawyer wasn't actually an attorney when firm said he represented Andrew Tate". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 4, 2025. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  22. ^ Dreisbach 2025.
  23. ^ a b Kavi 2025.
  24. ^ Thrush et al. 2025.
  25. ^ Beitsch, Rebecca (May 30, 2025). "Trump nominates Paul Ingrassia to lead Office of Special Counsel". The Hill. Archived from the original on June 1, 2025.
  26. ^ Wagner, Erich (July 28, 2025). "Unions, good government groups urge rejection of Trump's OSC nominee". Government Executive. Retrieved July 28, 2025.
  27. ^ Kaczynski & Steck 2025.
  28. ^ Barrón-López & Rennan 2025.
  29. ^ Hillyard et al. 2025.
  30. ^ Moore, Amanda (July 23, 2025). "Project 2025 Data Leak Shows a Paul Ingrassia Calling for Test for Voting and Halting Immigration". The Intercept. Retrieved July 23, 2025.

Works cited

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Articles

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Documents

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  • "Paul J Ingrassia in the U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019" (Document). Index to Public Records.

Posts

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