WASHINGTON _ K.T. McFarland, a former White House official whose nomination to be ambassador to Singapore was blocked in the Senate amid questions about her ties to Russia, withdrew from consideration on Friday.
President Donald Trump said in a statement he was "disappointed" by the withdrawal of McFarland, who'd been a national security aide, and blamed Democrats for opposing her confirmation.
"Unfortunately, some Democrats chose to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post," Trump said.
Senate Democrats charged last year that McFarland falsely testified about her ties to Russian officials when she was the deputy to Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was fired last February and since has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. Flynn's replacement, H.R. McMaster, ousted McFarland in April.
Her nomination for ambassador was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September. Before the full Senate could vote, however, Flynn's guilty plea on Dec. 1 implicated McFarland.
She was not mentioned by name in Flynn's plea, but references to her were later confirmed by a former White House official. According to the court document, Flynn consulted with McFarland in December 2016, when they were working on Trump's transition, as Flynn communicated with Kislyak about sanctions that the Obama administration had imposed on Russia for its election meddling.
McFarland later told the Foreign Relations Committee that she "was not aware" of the Flynn-Kislyak communications. After Democrats blocked a Senate vote last year, a defiant Trump renominated McFarland last month. Senators of both parties told the White House she had no chance of being confirmed.
