But in the wake of Ingrassia's growing clashes with Mizelle, Mizelle took steps to have Ingrassia removed from the Justice Department and assigned to another agency -- a move that irritated some senior White House officials, sources said. Ingrassia complained to associates earlier this month that he had been locked out of his Justice Department dev

Soon after the White House announced Ingrassia's appointment, Ingrassia began occupying an office on the fifth floor of the Justice Department, in an area typically reserved for the most senior staff in the attorney general's office, according to sources. ????????????  

According to Ingrassia's LinkedIn page, he became "President Trump's White House Liaison for DOJ" in January. In private, to White House colleagues, he described himself as Trump's "eyes and ears" at the Justice Department, with significant authority to help interview and select candidates for senior and lower-level positions, sources said. ?????

Trump was reelected in November after promising to rid the Justice Department of what he alleged was political bias tainting federal law enforcement. Bondi has echoed that rhetoric, issuing a directive within hours of taking office to establish a "Weaponization Working Group" that she said would review all of the "politicized" investigations prev

The White House intermediary, Paul Ingrassia, complained directly to Trump about Mizelle, the Justice Department's chief of staff, and suggested to the president that Mizelle is hurting Trump's political agenda, sources said. But Ingrassia has since been reassigned to work with the Department of Homeland Security, a White House official familiar wi