Hostage envoy and three ambassador nominees await Senate Foreign Relations hearings

By Anselm Dorsey

WASHINGTON — Four State Department nominees sent to the Senate on Sept. 28 — a hostage envoy and ambassadors to Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Cameroon — are awaiting hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the Senate out until after the Nov. 3 elections.

President Donald Trump’s Sept. 28 nominations include John Coale, of Maryland, as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs; Dino LaVerghetta, of Virginia, as ambassador to Kuwait; William Makaneole, of Hawaii, as ambassador to Turkmenistan; and Christian Ehrhardt, of New York, as ambassador to Cameroon. None has had a committee hearing, according to Congress.gov.

Hostage envoy

Coale has served as a U.S. special envoy in talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. On Sept. 16, Belarus released 25 prisoners after the United States agreed to lift sanctions on two Belarusian companies, paint maker Lakokraska and forestry group Bellesbumprom, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. “We will continue to improve US-Belarus relations and are working to secure the release of more people in the very near future,” Coale wrote on X, according to the outlet. The talks have led to the release of some 500 people since last year, RFE/RL reported.

Exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said “every person released is a victory” but that “it is far from the end of this process,” RFE/RL reported. The rights group Viasna has estimated that Belarus still holds more than 900 political prisoners, and some analysts quoted by the outlet said Lukashenko is using the releases to seek international legitimacy, an assertion he has denied.

The hostage envoy post was previously held in this administration by Adam Boehler, whose nominations were withdrawn in 2025, according to Congress.gov.

Kuwait

LaVerghetta is a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin. He served as senior associate counsel to the president in Trump’s first term and as senior counsel to the president in the second, and is a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, The Times Kuwait reported. He graduated from Boston University in 2003 and New York University School of Law in 2006, according to the report. The president’s previous nominee for Kuwait, Amer Ghalib, had his nomination returned to the president on Jan. 3, 2026, at the end of the Senate’s first session, according to Congress.gov.

Turkmenistan

Makaneole is a career member of the Foreign Service who arrived as U.S. consul general in Lahore, Pakistan, in August 2021, according to the U.S. Mission to Pakistan. The mission said he is a career member of both the Foreign Service and the Diplomatic Security Service, previously served as a director at the National Security Council, and held assignments in Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, the Central African Republic and Peshawar, Pakistan. He is a native of Hau’ula, Hawaii, and studied political science at the University of Hawaii, according to the mission.

Cameroon

Ehrhardt, 41, is a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, where he oversees the Office of Remigration and helped negotiate agreements with third countries to accept deportees, The Washington Post reported. Ehrhardt spent almost two decades in diplomatic security and previously served in Cameroon as a regional security officer, according to the Post. A State Department spokesperson told the Post that the president has “the right to determine who represents the American people and interests around the world.” Senate Democrats have sharply criticized the third-country deportation program, the Post reported, and a federal appeals court ruled in September that the policy is unlawful; the Supreme Court has allowed the removals to continue while it hears the case in December. The State Department has an agreement with Cameroon to accept up to 1,000 third-country nationals, according to the Post.

What comes next

The Foreign Relations Committee, led by Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), has not scheduled hearings for the four nominees. Under Senate Rule XXXI, nominations not confirmed when the Senate adjourns or recesses for more than 30 days are returned to the president unless the Senate agrees by unanimous consent to keep them in place. Nominations still pending when the 119th Congress ends on Jan. 3, 2027, would have to be resubmitted.

The Inquisitor has asked Chairman Risch’s office, Ranking Member Shaheen’s office, the committee’s majority press office, the offices of committee members Sens. Chris Murphy and Tim Kaine, and the American Foreign Service Association for comment, and will update this story with any response.