Kathleen Sgamma’s abrupt withdrawal Thursday as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management appears to be prompted by a recently disclosed memo she sent to members of her trade group blaming Trump for “spreading misinformation” that incited a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sgamma, president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, was in Washington for her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, according to a person familiar with the situation. But she did not appear before the committee.
Instead, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, the committee chair — appearing startled — announced that the White House had informed him earlier that morning that Sgamma had withdrawn from consideration to lead BLM.
Lee did not say why Sgamma withdrew her nomination, but he said Sgamma and the other two nominees at the hearing — Wells Griffith for Energy undersecretary and Darío Gil, for Energy undersecretary for science — “deserve to be confirmed, and each has my strong support.”
