A former Trump campaign official who has been linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination for a post with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sam Clovis says in a letter to President Donald Trump dated Thursday that he does “not want to be a distraction or a negative influence.” He cites “relentless assaults on you and your team” that “seem to be a blood sport.”
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said they respect his decision to withdraw.
This week, it was revealed that Clovis had communications with George Papadopoulos, who has admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries.
Questions have also been raised about Clovis’s qualifications to serve as the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist. He is a self-described skeptic of climate change.
Court appearance today
The development comes as Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are set to make a court appearance in D.C. later Thursday.
Manafort, who served for a few months in 2016 as Trump’s election campaign manager, and business associate Gates will be before the U.S. judge in overseeing a criminal case brought by a special counsel investigating campaign ties to Russia.
Manafort and Gates face several charges that could lead to several years in prison, including fraud and conspiracy against the U.S. Prosecutors allege Gates and Manafort worked for several years as unregistered agents of the government of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian political party led by Victor Yanukovych, and then laundered money through overseas accounts they controlled from the millions they amassed.
Gates was also a Trump campaign adviser and stayed on through its duration even after Manafort stepped down in August 2016.