WASHINGTON
— A former Trump campaign aide dropped out of the running on Thursday
for a senior position at the Department of Agriculture three days after
his name was tied to a former campaign foreign policy adviser who
pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. over his contacts with Russia.
The
campaign aide, Sam Clovis, told President Trump that he decided to
withdraw from consideration to be the chief scientist at the Department
of Agriculture, the White House said.
“The
political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to
receive balanced and fair consideration for this position,” Mr. Clovis
wrote in a letter on Wednesday to Mr. Trump. “The relentless assaults on
you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases in
intensity each day.”
Mr.
Clovis’s request to drop out of consideration is the latest blow to the
Trump administration that for months has been dogged by the special
counsel investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and
Russia. Mr. Clovis, an early campaign adviser, has met with the special
counsel’s team.
On
Monday, it was disclosed that Mr. Clovis discussed the Trump campaign’s
priorities for relations with Russia with the foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty
last month to lying to the F.B.I. about his communications with Russian
officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to
interviews and court papers.
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Mr.
Clovis was among the Trump campaign officials who knew that Mr.
Papadopoulos was developing contacts in Moscow and trying to to arrange a
meeting for Mr. Trump in Russia.
“Great
work,” Mr. Clovis wrote in a March 2016 email to Mr. Papadopoulos. Mr.
Clovis, an economics professor, Tea Party activist and Air Force
veteran, helped supervise the foreign policy team.
Mr. Clovis’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, declined to comment on Thursday.
In
July, Mr. Trump announced his intention to nominate Mr. Clovis to be
the under secretary of agriculture for research, education and
economics. The position requires Senate confirmation.
Mr.
Clovis’s credentials for the job were already under question by some
who said he did not have the right experience to serve as the
department’s chief scientist because he was not himself a scientist.
“Sam
Clovis was almost a comically bad nominee, even for this
administration,” Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said in a
statement on Thursday.
Mr.
Leahy, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which would have
conducted Mr. Clovis’s nomination hearing, said he had planned to ask
Mr. Clovis about Mr. Papadopoulos’s efforts to obtain stolen Democratic emails from the Russians.
Court
documents unsealed on Monday said that Mr. Papadopoulos had been told
of stolen emails, but he has not been accused of trying to obtain them.
“Mr.
Clovis’s nomination was only withdrawn because that would certainly
have been a topic during his upcoming testimony, under oath,” Mr. Leahy
said.
On
Tuesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, was
asked whether the president still supported Mr. Clovis to serve as the
chief scientist at the department, given the recent disclosures about
his communications with Mr. Papadopoulos.
“I’m not aware that any change would be necessary at this time,” Ms. Sanders said.
Mr.
Clovis, of Iowa, is the senior White House adviser to the Department of
Agriculture. In his letter, he told Mr. Trump he would remain in this
role.
“I
worked hard during the campaign and take some pride in the
accomplishment of having you elevated to the presidency,” Mr. Clovis
wrote.
Mr. Clovis first supported Rick Perry to be the Republican nominee and ran Mr. Perry’s campaign in Iowa. He joined the Trump campaign in August 2015, even as he had once said Mr. Trump lacked “a moral center.”
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