A white nationalist who was chosen as a delegate for the Trump campaign in California resigned on Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported.
{mosads}William Johnson, who is the head of the white nationalist organization American Freedom Party, resigned after he was told by the Trump campaign’s state chairman, Tim Clark, that he was no longer being considered for a delegate position.
Mother Jones reported earlier on Tuesday that Johnson was among those selected as a delegate.
Soon after, Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the campaign, blamed the California secretary of State’s office for picking Johnson from an outdated list of delegates that the campaign had submitted earlier in the year.
“Yesterday the Trump campaign submitted its list of California delegates to be certified by the Secretary of State of California,” Hicks said in a statement. “A database error led to the inclusion of a potential delegate that had been rejected and removed from the campaign’s list in February 2016.”
The campaign corrected itself shortly after that, admitting it had included Johnson on the list it submitted just before the Monday deadline.
“Yesterday the Trump Campaign submitted its list of California delegates to be certified by the Secretary of State of California,” Clark said in a statement. “Upon careful review of computer records, the inclusion of a potential delegate that had previously been rejected and removed from the campaign’s list in February 2016, was discovered. This was immediately corrected and a final list, which does not include this individual, was submitted for certification.”
A spokesman with the secretary of State’s office confirmed to The Hill that the campaign had included Johnson on the list submitted Monday, then had attempted to submit a revised list without the white nationalist on Tuesday after the deadline had passed.
Johnson has popped up on Trump’s radar before. Earlier this year Trump returned a $250 donation Johnson had made to his campaign. He was also featured in robocalls from a white nationalist group asking voters in Iowa to back the real estate mogul ahead of that state’s caucuses.
— This post was updated at 9:15 p.m.