Boehler pulls his candidacy to serve as US presidential envoy for hostage affairs
US official tells ToI that Adam Boehler will continue to assist Witkoff’s efforts to secure the release of hostages from Gaza, amid anger in Israel over his direct talks with Hamas
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Adam Boehler has withdrawn his candidacy to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, a senior US official told The Times of Israel on Friday, clarifying that he will continue to manage the file, which deals with efforts to release Americans wrongfully detained or held captive worldwide, but from a lower-level position that does not require Senate confirmation.
Boehler will continue to work on the issue on behalf of US President Donald Trump and in particular will keep assisting special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff’s efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza, a second US official told The Times of Israel.
The second US official said Trump asked Boehler to report to him as a special government employee at White House instead of the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA) role he was originally tapped to fill because the latter position “comes with red tape” that the administration would prefer to avoid.
But the move was announced as Jerusalem still reels over the unprecedented direct talks Boehler held with Hamas in recent weeks, which were aimed largely at securing the release of dual US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander and four slain dual US-Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza.
The talks were completely coordinated with Witkoff, but Israel was not fully informed ahead of time and has directed its ire at Boehler since learning about the meetings and leaking them to the press on March 4, the senior US official said.
According to the first US official, Boehler began preparing to withdraw his candidacy several weeks ago, before the secret talks with Hamas were revealed.
Boehler sought to calm concerns in Israel over the talks with Hamas during a series of interviews on Sunday, but his comments defending the talks and sometimes dismissing Israeli objections further enraged Jerusalem.
Among the remarks that prompted Israeli anger were Boehler’s contention that “the most productive [approach] is to realize that every piece of a person is a human and to identify with the human elements of those people and then build from there,” and his repeated references to Israeli hostages as “prisoners” — while at the same appearing to describe Palestinian prisoners as “hostages.”
Boehler also said that while he understood the concerns of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, “I don’t really care about that that much — no offense to Dermer.”
“We’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel,” Boehler declared.
Dermer, who is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top confidant, lobbied US officials to sideline Boehler from involvement on the Israel file, and Israeli frustrations were also voiced to Senate Republicans, some of whom took Jerusalem’s side and expressed their own concerns to the White House, the senior US official said.
Trump appointed Boehler to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs back in January, but his confirmation hearing had yet to be scheduled.
Boehler will continue to deal with hostage affairs, but with the title of special government employee, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told The Times of Israel.
“Adam played a critical role in negotiating the return of Marc Fogel from Russia,” Kelly continued. “He will continue this important work to bring wrongfully detained individuals around the world home.”
“Adam Boehler is President Trump’s Special Envoy and will continue his work to bring all Americans home through a whole-of-government approach. President Trump is following through on his promise to Americans and Adam is committed to his agenda,” a third US official told The Times of Israel.
As special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA), Boehler would only have been legally mandated to assist in efforts to secure the release of hostages and wrongfully detained Americans. Those categories do not include thousands of other Americans worldwide who are held abroad for other reasons or who do not fit into the legal definition of hostages or those wrongfully detained.
Those who do not fall within the SPEHA mandate include 23 Americans who have been held in Kuwait for years on drug offenses. Given that he has not been confirmed as SPEHA, Boehler was able to play a key role in securing their release, with six of them returning to the US two days ago.
Involvement in such an effort would have been more legally complicated had Boehler been confirmed as SPEHA.
“President Trump’s mission of bringing all Americans home expands beyond the SPEHA mandate and involves coordination across government agencies,” the second US official said.
While Boehler’s appointment to the new special government employee post has not yet been formally announced by the Trump administration, the new role “will add, not subtract, to the work Adam is doing to bring Americans home,” the second US official said.
Witkoff has yet to publicly comment on Boehler’s status in the administration. He has worked this week to advance talks with Hamas on the original track in which Egypt and Qatar serve as mediators between the US and Israel.
Witkoff on Friday dismissed as disingenuous a Hamas offer to release Edan Alexander — who is the last known living American-Israeli hostage — and the remains of four unidentified dual nationals. The envoy called on Hamas to instead accept his “bridge proposal” that would extend the ceasefire deal’s first phase and see Hamas release living hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
A senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s offer Friday morning was based on what the Palestinian terrorist organization discussed with Boehler on March 4. At the time, Hamas held off on agreeing to the terms that were then being discussed.
Though Hamas’s statement did not specify the nationalities of the slain hostages slated for release along with Alexander, the Arab diplomat who spoke to The Times of Israel said they were the four remaining American-Israelis in captivity — Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judy Weinstein.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.