Trump's pick to oversee public lands withdraws after criticism of Jan. 6 riot surfaces [View all]

Source: Washington Post

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management abruptly withdrew her nomination Thursday morning, just as her confirmation hearing was about to begin.

Kathleen Sgamma, who heads a Denver-based oil and gas industry trade group called the Western Energy Alliance, has “withdrawn from consideration,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) said at the outset of the hearing.

The reason for Sgamma’s decision was unclear. But it comes after the investigative group Documented on Tuesday released a 2021 letter in which Sgamma wrote that she was “disgusted” by Trump “spreading misinformation” about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

-snip-

“The events yesterday at the Capitol were so shocking that our policy engagement with and PAC support for the Trump Administration compels me to speak up,” she wrote. “I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/10/bureau-land-management-kathleen-sgamma-nomination/

---

The letter, which was sent to Western Energy Alliance members , also ended by wishing President Biden "the best of luck in his goal to return to normalcy and moderation" though she disagreed with many of his energy policies.