Donald Trump’s pick to lead a key Justice Department law enforcement office was found to have scrubbed hundreds of social media posts that savaged the very senators weighing his confirmation.
Konstantinos Ligris, 49, a tech entrepreneur and former real estate attorney, was nominated to lead the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, which awards grants and assistance to state, local, and tribal police forces.
The trouble is his old X account, which a Courthouse News review found packed with insults aimed at lawmakers, judges, and the police he now hopes to work alongside.
Facing the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning, Ligris claimed he could not recall the posts and said he “routinely” wipes his account every 90 days “for cybersecurity exposure reasons,” as the outlet reported.
Courthouse News reviewed more than 300 archived posts in which Ligris went after Democrats and Republicans alike. He branded Sen. Alex Padilla of California a “thug” after Padilla was tackled and cuffed at a press conference held by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota got tagged a “top-rated propaganda peddler” and “partisan hack,” according to the outlet. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, was a “loser and a fraud” and a “socialist hypocrite.” Both Padilla and Klobuchar sit on the committee that will decide his fate.
Republicans were not spared. Ligris called Sen. Susan Collins of Maine a “fraud” after she voted against Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. He said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski “sounds almost as dumb as Kamala,” referring to former Vice President Kamala Harris.
He also pushed to impeach federal judges who ruled against Trump. In a March 2025 post flagged by Courthouse News, he demanded Congress remove D.C. District Judge James Boasberg, writing: “Impeach all these political hacks.”
But the post that stung Democrats most came in 2024, when Ligris replied to a dashcam clip by branding police officers “dumb as dirt.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, was floored. “At least address the ‘dumb as dirt’ comment,” he said as he pressed Ligris during the hearing.
“You want to work with police departments across the United States, and it’s a matter of record that you think they’re dumb as dirt?”
Ligris insisted he did not have the post’s “specific reference” and said it may have been a repost. He noted several family members serve as police officers. “I do not believe that law enforcement is dumb as dirt,” he said.
Under questioning from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ligris conceded that he had never disclosed the posts to the DOJ and that the department had never raised them with him.
Ligris is a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur who founded the law firm Ligris before launching Stavvy, a digital platform for property transactions, as Law.com reported. He now sits as a director at title insurer CATIC, where—in a detail that may raise eyebrows—he chairs the cybersecurity committee.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department and the White House for comment.
