Trump aide, accused of ties to anti-Semitic group, to leave White House
Sebastian Gorka, allegedly a member Hungary’s Vitenzi Rend, reportedly ‘generating too much controversy,’ says CNN source
A security adviser to US President Donald Trump, whose alleged ties to a pro-Nazi group have gained international attention, is said to be leaving the White House, according to US media quoting insider sources.
Sebastian Gorka is expected to take a position involving counter-terrorism outside the White House, according to the Washington Examiner which cited a senior administration official.
A senior official cited by CNN reportedly said Gorka was simply “generating too much controversy” for the already controversy-prone, Trump-led White House. The Washington Examiner reported that the exit comes amid a lack of a security clearance that interfered with his performance.
An official told AP that Gorka had initially been hired to play a key role on the Strategic Initiatives Group, an advisory panel created by Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon to run parallel to the National Security Council.
But that group fizzled out in the early months of the administration. Gorka was unable to get clearance for the National Security Council after he was charged last year with carrying a weapon at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Prior to joining the Trump administration, he worked as a terrorism analyst and editor for Breitbart News, the right-wing media organization once led by Bannon.
His reported exit is the latest shake-up in the National Security Council, following the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn and the removal of Bannon from the Council’s Principals Committee.
In recent months, reports have emerged linking Gorka with anti-Semitic Hungarian nationalist groups.
A native of Britain who is the son of Hungarian immigrants, he has been reported to be a member of Vitézi Rend, named for a defunct order of merit that had existed as a state entity for 20 years until 1944 under the rule of Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s Nazi-allied leader. Vitézi Rend was disbanded, outlawed and ceased to exist in the 1940s following the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany.
The US State Department lists Vitézi Rend as a Nazi-linked group, which could render members ineligible for visas. Gorka immigrated to the US nine years ago.
Gorka, who has appeared on TV wearing a Vitézi Rend pin, says he inherited his position with the group from his father and never officially joined. However, The Forward newspaper reported that he has used an honorific reserved for members of the group since 1998, several years before his father’s death.
Earlier this month, the Forward published a 2007 recording in which Gorka said he was not opposed to the establishment of the Hungarian Guard, a nationalist militia that later was accused of racism and anti-Semitism. In 2009, a Hungarian court banned the Guard.
In March, Democratic Representative Jerrod Nadler and three top Democratic senators voiced concern over reports of Gorka’s alleged membership in the Vitézi Rend and in a letter urged acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente, and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, to investigate the circumstances of Gorka’s path to US citizenship, and whether he concealed his alleged membership in the group as part of his naturalization process.
Gorka has denied being a fascist or anti-Semite. In a statement published last month by Tablet, Gorka was quoted as writing, “I have never been a member of the Vitézi Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend.”
Last week, he walked out of a panel at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, after being questioned by students over the alleged connections to the group.
After denying allegations that he is anti-Semitic in his opening statement, Gorka was questioned numerous times by a group of protesters in regards to his alleged connections with Vitézi Rend, leading him to say “I am sorry for you.”
“You are the victims of fake news,” The Hill quoted him as saying.
Gorka then challenged his critics to produce evidence to back their claims he is anti-Semitic.
Gorka told the panel the accusations against him were part of a media campaign to play up reports of tensions in the Trump administration.
Earlier this month, a group of Democratic lawmakers called on Trump to dismiss Gorka over his alleged ties with the far-right groups, saying they make him “unfit to serve in any position of responsibility in the White House.”
JTA contributed to this report.
