Donald Trump, the newly-minted presumptive Republican nominee, has waded into familiar territory once more: Controversy.
In California, the office of the State Secretary of State released a list of the delegates that each candidate had chosen to appear on their slate. But the Trump campaign’s list included an interesting name: William Johnson, a known White Nationalist, first reported by "Mother Jones".
When contacted by ABC News, the campaign released a statement saying that the selection was an error.
"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.”
But there is a wrinkle. Per spokesman Sam Mahood, the California SOS’s office received the Trump campaign’s notice after the deadline.
"The Trump campaign did not reach out to our office about removing William Johnson’s name as a delegate until today [Tuesday, May 10] -- which is past the statutory deadline to submit delegate lists to the Secretary of State’s office,” Mahood told ABC News.
Which means that Johnson will remain as a Trump delegate. The campaign has the opportunity to submit a list of alternates within 30 days after the June 7 primary.
Johnson confirmed to ABC News that he had been selected as a delegate, adding that he corresponded with the Trump campaign as late as Monday. He is not entirely unknown within political spheres. The founder of the American National Super PAC, Johnson has recorded robocalls in support of Trump in Utah and Wisconsin.
ABC News wrote extensively about his involvement and support for Trump earlier in March. He, like other white nationalists profiled, admire Trump for his populist themes and desire to want to keep out illegal immigrants.
"Donald Trump has two of the three components that white nationalists support: He's a populist and he wants to control our borders and that's good for us," Johnson told ABC News in March."
Johnson runs a white nationalist political party that the Southern Poverty Law Center says "wants to run racist candidates nationwide."
Johnson says they’re running white nationalist candidates.
His party, the American Freedom Party, has a case for limited government and has its own candidate for president. But Johnson was so taken by Trump that he created a PAC just to support the New York businessman.