Breaking News – White House Pulls Controversial ATF Nominee

This article is via The Reload.

David Chipman will not be the director of the ATF.

Multiple sources have told Politico, The Washington Post, and CNN the White House plans to withdraw his nomination after failing to garner 50 votes in the Senate. Chipman was unable to secure support from even the Democratic caucus after a contentious confirmation hearing and a series of Reload stories on allegations of racism on his part coming from former ATF agents. The Reload stories led to calls from Republicans for new hearings and a whistleblower report being filed with the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In August, a black former ATF agent told The Reload that Chipman had falsely accused him of cheating on a promotion assessment because he believed the agent had done too well on a section of the examination.

“I couldn’t believe it when it happened,” the agent said. “But when I read about his other comments, in my mind, I was like ‘that motherf*****.’ That’s what happened. He said, ‘Hey, a lot of African Americans qualified to be promoted on this certification list; they must have been cheating.’ And then he had to go and find one. I happened to be that one.”

The agent said Chipman’s complaint against him initiated a years-long inspector general investigation against him in 2007 that sidetracked his career before exonerating him. The Department of Justice confirmed Chipman had initiated an investigation against an agent over accusations of cheating in 2007. However, they would not release the report or confirm any further details about it. The department did defend Chipman against allegations of racial bias, though.

“Any allegations of bias against David Chipman are false,” Dena Iverson, principal deputy director of DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, said at the time, “and in the two times he was the subject of a workplace complaint over a 25-year career at the ATF, the claims were thoroughly investigated and found to be meritless.”

Read more at The Reload.com, and be sure to check out our recent interview with Reload founder, Stephen Gutowski.