iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Sebastian Gorka, a top national security advisor to President Donald Trump who has stirred up controversy over alleged ties to a Nazi-aligned group in Hungary, is expected to leave his position at the White House, a senior administration official said Sunday.
The official did not offer details on where Gorka, a member of the White House’s Strategic Initiatives Group, would head to next, but the person said the departure would not be immediate.
In March, three Democratic U.S. senators wrote a letter asking questions about Gorka’s alleged ties to Vitezi Rend, a right-wing nationalist group in Hungary that some associate with past Nazi collaboration. Last month, Democratic House members called for his resignation over his alleged ties to anti-Semitic groups.
Gorka has denied the allegations.
When reached by phone, Gorka did not deny that he was departing, but he declined to offer an official comment at the time. The White House also declined to comment on the matter.
Following the exit of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, Gorka became one of the most controversial members of the administration as reports surfaced alleging links to Historical Vitezi Rend, a far-right Hungarian extremist group that the U.S. State Department lists as being “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany” during World War II, The Forward, an American Jewish news outlet, reported in March, citing leaders of the organization.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) cited The Forward’s report in a letter addressed to Trump in March, asking the White House to “immediately clarify” if Gorka was a member or not.
“If Sebastian Gorka is indeed a member of this organization, as high-ranking leaders of the organization claim he is, he would have been required to disclose this information on his immigration application, and on his application to be a naturalized U.S. citizen,” Nadler stated in the letter.
“Therefore, I am asking that you provide the House Committee on the Judiciary with Sebastian Gorka’s immigration application and his application to be a U.S. citizen, so that the Committee can be assured that he did not enter this country under false pretenses,” he continued.
Gorka, a former Breitbart editor who holds a PhD in political science, dismissed The Forward’s claims in a statement to ABC News in March.
“I’ve been a committed opponent of anti-Semitism, racism and totalitarianism all my life,” Gorka said. “Any suggestion otherwise is false and outrageous.”
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