Trump Aide Banned From Justice Department

The official serving as President Trump’s eyes and ears at the Justice Department has been banned from the building after trying to pressure staffers to give up sensitive information about election fraud and other matters she could relay to the White House, three people familiar with the matter tell the AP. Heidi Stirrup, an ally of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller and previously a central figure in the Trump administration’s push for hard-line immigration policies, was quietly installed at the Justice Department as a White House liaison a few months ago. She was told within the last two weeks to vacate the building after top Justice officials learned of her efforts to collect insider information about ongoing cases and the department’s work on election fraud, the people said.

Stirrup is accused of approaching staffers in the department demanding they give her information about investigations, including election fraud matters, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. Stirrup had also extended job offers to political allies for positions at some of the highest levels of the Justice Department without consulting any senior department officials or the White House counsel's office and also attempted to interfere in the hiring process for career staffers, a violation of the government's human resources policies, one of the people said. On Thursday, Trump appointed Stirrup to be a member of the board of visitors of the US Air Force Academy, according to a White House press release. (More on the issue here.)