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.”
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