A lawyer working as the White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security presented himself as an attorney more than a year before he was admitted to the bar.
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Numerous outlets reported that Paul Ingrassia represented Andrew and Tristan Tate in a civil suit in Florida in July 2023, based on a press release from the law firm he worked for, which called him an “Associate Attorney.”
But the announcement ran a week before he even sat for the bar exam and a full year before he was admitted to practice law in the state of New York.
When McBride Law Firm in New York City filed a defamation suit on behalf of the Tate brothers against an alleged victim in July 2023, the firm released a statement featuring blurbs about its team representing the notorious duo.
Ingrassia was listed as an “associate attorney” with McBride and was “assigned to work on the Tate Brothers’ civil case several months ago.”
Weeks before filing the suit, McBride and Ingrassia flew to Romania to facilitate Tucker Carlson’s interview with the Tate brothers.
“Headed to Romania with McBride Law Associate Attorney—@PaulIngrassia on an epic business trip,” Joseph McBride posted on X on June 28, 2023.
While McBride was touting the credentials on public channels, Ingrassia also said he was an attorney.
As early as May 16, 2023, months before he took the bar exam, Ingrassia referred to himself as “an Associate Attorney at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC” on his personal Substack. But his bio on the site frequently changed. In a July 2023 piece on Tate, he described himself simply as an “associate” at the firm. In August, he referred to himself as a “law clerk.”
New York state records show that Ingrassia, a 2022 graduate of Cornell Law, took the bar on July 25-26, 2023, under his given name, Paolo Ingrassia.
While Ingrassia received his results in October 2023, he was not admitted to the New York State Bar until July 30, 2024.
According to New York state law, it is illegal for anyone to “hold himself or herself out to the public as being entitled to practice law” or to “advertise the title of lawyer” in a way that makes the public believe they are licensed to practice.
Posts on Ingrassia’s Substack discussed legal matters. Under the bio of “associate,” Ingrassia analyzed the constitutionality of Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship.
The act can be a misdemeanor or a Class E felony.
Multiple attorneys admitted to the New York Bar told Daily Dot that misrepresenting oneself this way is a breach of conduct.
“I actually had an attorney give me a stern warning because I received business cards with ‘Esq.’ after my name the literal day before I was admitted,” one New York employment lawyer said.
The action was “probably unlawful, probably unethical, and during that year they may have engaged in UPL [unauthorized practice of law],” said another senior New York barred attorney who lectures and practices on legal ethics.
This misrepresentation, they said, “could result in a penalty or sanction” from the state bar’s Committee on Character & Fitness.
An archive of McBride’s press release, saved on Feb. 5, 2025, still listed Ingrassia as a lawyer for the firm.
After outlets began reporting that one of Tate’s lawyers now worked in the White House, Ingrassia was removed from the press release.
Ingrassia may never have been a licensed attorney with the firm.
On LinkedIn, he listed himself as a “summer associate” and a “law clerk” during his time there.
Ingrassia also repeatedly touted his prowess as a “Constitutional scholar,” bolstering his credibility as the author of an article baselessly claiming Nikki Haley was not eligible to run for president in 2024.
President Donald Trump shared the article on Truth Social. Ingrassia declared himself Trump’s favorite Substacker.
Ingrassia was brought on as the White House Liaison to the Department of Justice on Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. That evening, he went to the D.C. Jail with a SpaceX employee to oversee the release of pardoned Jan. 6 Capitol riot prisoners.
A piece of sponsored political content from his mother about the night detailed his upcoming job duties.
According to Donna Gallo-Ingrassia, “Paul’s responsibilities include staffing the DOJ, FBI, US Attorney’s Offices, and US marshals.”
“Paul said that he wanted to … make the department ‘into a MAGA juggernaut.’”
According to ABC, Ingrassia pushed to get John Pierce, an attorney representing Jan. 6 defendants, hired by the Justice Department to work on pardon requests.
Ingrassia’s own LinkedIn and Substack said he was still working for Pierce at the time.
Ingrassia started working at the National Constitutional Law Union (NCLU), Pierce’s idea of a right-wing ACLU, in February 2024. Based on Ingrassia’s own LinkedIn, he worked there until February 2025.
In the bio at the bottom of a Feb. 23, 2025 Substack post, Ingrassia stated that he is the “Communications Director of the NCLU.”
Ingrassia, McBride, and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Pierce told Daily Dot that “Paul Ingrassia was not employed by the NCLU at any point after he began assisting President Trump and his administration. Nor did he receive any compensation whatsoever. Anything on social media to the contrary was simply an oversight, likely due to the hectic nature of the transition period.”
An ethics official at a federal agency discussing the matter told the Daily Dot that “a hiring decision probably qualifies” as a conflict, given the circumstances.
Ingrassia has since transitioned to White House Liaison to the DHS. ABC reported the switch was in part because of his insistence on the DOJ bringing on Pierce.
But Ingrassia’s presenting himself as an attorney isn’t the only time he’s been accused of claiming something he didn’t technically have a right to.
Ingrassia is on the advisory board for the Italian-American Civil Rights League (IACRL), based in New Jersey.
It’s an organization that lifted the name and logo directly from another organization, one that still exists.
Other members include Mike Crispi, who runs a Rumble show; longtime Trump ally Roger Stone; and Sal Greco, a former New York cop whom Stone once discussed assassinating Democrats with.
The organization’s website says it is “continuing a proud legacy” and was “founded in 1970, made great again in 2023!”
But the original IACRL they cited is still around. It was started by mob boss Joe Colombo in the 1970s and grew to 45,000 dues-paying members.
According to its website, it is now “a New York City non-profit, non-sectarian community-based organization.”
But the organization does not have a large social media presence and had little recourse when the new group took both its name and logo.
When a user on X pointed out the original group was still active, the new IACRL replied with, “We are the real org now. Trust us.”
When asked about Ingrassia’s organization, the original IACRL said it had been advised to seek legal counsel to “clear our name as we are a completely non-political community-based organization.”
In a statement on its website, it denounced the group and denied any association.
Stone, Ingrassia, and other members have leveraged their connections to promote the knock-off group. They have shared photos at Trump rallies and Mar-a-Lago with captions suggesting they were attending events in their capacity as IACRL members.
And Stone, like Ingrassia, also has his ties to the Tates.
Last week, he shared a photo of himself with the Tate brothers on X, celebrating their return to America.
Online, speculation ran rampant that Ingrassia was behind the Trump administration’s decision to allow the Tates to come back into the country.
Stone claimed that special envoy Richard Grenell had “secured the release of the Tates” in a post he later deleted.
Whether Ingrassia was involved, he hasn’t stopped supporting the Tates, recently encouraging Andrew Tate to run for office.
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