Trump's new diplomatic nominee was previously rejected over alleged restraining order
Donald Trump has nominated a businesswoman who had a front-row seat for his July 13 assassination attempt to become the ambassador to Sweden.
The president-elect tapped Christine Jack Toretti, a Pennsylvania-based GOP fundraiser, as the top diplomat to the Scandinavian nation after she was twice rejected by the Senate during Trump's last term as ambassador to Malta, reported Politico.
“Christine is an incredible businesswoman, philanthropist, public servant, and (Republican National) Committeewoman for the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social.
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“She is chairman of S&T Bancorp, and a former director of the Pittsburgh Federal Reserve Bank,” he added. “Christine has been a tireless supporter of important causes as a board member of the International Medical Corps, former chair of the Andy Warhol Museum, director of the NCAA Foundation, founding director of the Gettysburg Foundation, trustee of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and chair of the Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series in Pennsylvania, and the Dodie Londen Excellence in Public Service Series in Arizona.”
Trump had previously nominated Toretti as envoy to Malta, but the Democratic-led Senate returned her nomination in both 2019 and 2020, questioning the quality of some of his nominees.
Toretti at the time reportedly was under a restraining order filed against her by her ex-husband's doctor, who she blamed for the end of her marriage to former University of Arizona men's basketball coach Lute Olson.
The doctor alleged that Toretti came to his Tucson, Arizona, office and "behaved in a threatening manner" toward staff members and then came into his office and placed a bullet-riddled target practice sheet on his desk.
Toretti was sitting in the front row of the president-elect's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire, apparently wounding Trump in the ear, injuring two supporters and killing retired fire chief Corey Comperatore.
“I thought I was in a dream and it seemed like it went slow motion,” Toretti told the New York Times.