Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is "appreciative" of the opportunity, but has now withdrawn his name to be considered for assistant secretary in the Office of Partnership and Engagement at the Homeland Security Department.

"Late Friday, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. formally notified Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly that he had rescinded his acceptance of the agency's offer to join DHS as an assistant secretary," Craig Peterson, an adviser to Clarke, said in a statement send out Saturday. "Sheriff Clarke is 100 percent committed to the success of President Trump and believes his skills could be better utilized to promote the president's agenda in a more aggressive role."

The new was first reported by the Washington Post.

Though Clarke said he had accepted a role with the Trump administration, set to start in June as assistant DHS secretary, the DHS public affairs office never publicly confirmed it.

There had been pushback to Clarke joining DHS, including from Democratic lawmakers.

Multiple letters had been sent to DHS Secretary John Kelly urging him to reject Clarke due to concerns about his record as overseer of the Milwaukee County Jail after multiple inmate deaths and controversial comments he's made about the Black Lives Matter movement, Democrats and Planned Parenthood.

More recently, Clarke was accused of plagiarism. A CNN KFile report found 47 instances in which Clarke failed to properly attribute sources used in a 2013 master's thesis, which is currently under investigation by the the Naval Postgraduate School. Clarke denied the report.

A person close to the matter told the Post that delays in appointing Clarke were part of the reason why he opted out.

Trump met with Clarke in Wisconsin last week where they discussed other possible roles for Clarke outside of the administration that could support Trump, Peterson said.