Photo by Meg Frederick

President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee the agency that oversees most of America’s wild horses and burros withdrew her nomination on Thursday.

Kathleen Sgamma’s withdrawal was announced at the start of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

It came after the investigative news outlet Documented published a memo in which Sgamma criticized Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it,” Sgamma said.

She previously served as president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, promoting oil and gas companies that have sought to expand drilling and mining on public lands.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of America’s public lands and about 700 million acres of its subsurface minerals. It manages wild horses and burros on 25.6 million acres as well as tens of thousands of captured animals in off-range holding.

The U.S. Forest Services oversees wild horses and burros on an additional 4.7 million acres.