Trump megadonor pushed the White House to hire her personal pick for crucial DOJ role… now humiliating fallout is revealed after troubling social media posts

By BREANNE DEPPISCH, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER

Published: 15:53 EST, 12 November 2026 | Updated: 16:10 EST, 12 November 2026

Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson used her influence within the White House to push through a controversial Justice Department nominee despite the objections of senior administration officials in June, insiders told the Daily Mail.

The incident backfired and an embarrassing personnel fight ensued that exposed vulnerabilities within the Trump administration’s ranks.

Adelson’s history with Donald Trump stretches back years, with the president once joking that she and her husband were frequent visitors to the White House in his first term. He also bestowed on Adelson the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2018.

Adelson donated $100 million to pro-Trump Super PAC Preserve America ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to campaign finance filings. And last year during a White House event, Trump praised Adelson for donating even more.

‘She gave my campaign indirectly and directly $250 million. She was number one,’ he said.

According to sources, Adelson called the White House personnel office earlier this year to request Konstantinos, or ‘Kosta,’ Ligris serve as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). The office allocates billions in funding per year to support law enforcement, public safety and substance abuse initiatives nationwide.

Justice Department officials pushed back.

They told the de facto leader of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (PPO), Morgan DeWitt-Snow, that Ligris, a tech entrepreneur and consultant, was unqualified for the role.

President Donald Trump speaks alongside then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at a press conference

Former White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and billionaire GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson are seen in this January 2025 photo following Trump’s inauguration to a second term

Despite this, DeWitt-Snow – a close ally of newly departed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles – pushed him through anyway, two senior administration officials with knowledge of the deliberations and a third source familiar told the Daily Mail.

DOJ ‘didn’t want to hire’ Ligris, a senior White House official said.

‘She, Morgan, forced them to do it anyways, and he ended up having his nomination pulled,’ they added.

But that did not happen until after a damaging confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June. There, Democrats confronted Ligris about hundreds of problematic social media posts he had posted, then deleted, calling for the impeachment of certain federal judges, disparaging local police as ‘dumb as dirt,’ and insulting members of Congress, including lawmakers on the committee.

His nomination was withdrawn not long after.

Critics say it is just one of many unusual situations that have played out inside the White House’s personnel office, as hiring for key roles has slowed to a near-standstill under DeWitt-Snow.

‘She has turned the personnel office into a spoils system, and the admin has suffered immeasurably as a result,’ one senior Justice Department official told the Daily Mail.

There is no evidence that DeWitt-Snow recommended any individual in exchange for political favors.

Trump awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Doctor Miriam Adelson at the White House during his first term, in 2018

Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC

Adelson and Ligris are believed to be close, according to sources, though the extent of their personal relationship is unknown.

Adelson’s role as chair and cofounder of several substance abuse clinics and research centers also prompted questions from DOJ officials, given OJP’s responsibility for funding substance abuse initiatives.

It is not clear whether any of the clinics or centers linked to Adelson have received Justice Department-backed grants.

Neither Adelson nor Ligris responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

The incident in question offers a striking example of what administration individuals described to the Daily Mail as a broader culture of dysfunction that has permeated the White House personnel office during Trump’s second term.

Their assessment marks a sharp rebuke of the personnel operation under the so-called ‘ice queen’ Susie Wiles and her deputies, who have overseen an office that has been characterized by delays, unanswered requests and fights over control.

‘Susie cared about maintaining her control and her power at all costs,’ one insider told the Daily Mail – a view that also trickled down to her allies in the personnel office.

The best way to maintain that control, one insider told the Daily Mail, is to ensure the people working in the White House are ‘loyal to you,’ and that their hires, in turn, were loyal to them.

But this appears to have slowed things inside the personnel office, where the time it took to fill a vacancy within the Trump administration has more than doubled since the departure of former PPO chief, Sergio Gor.

Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller are seen at the UN General Assembly in New York. Wiles was replaced by Miller as White House chief of staff after the 2026 midterm elections

Dan Scavino, Trump’s longtime ally who serves as his deputy chief of staff and the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, has been widely described as being entirely hands-off in his second role – leaving the staffing operations in the hands of his deputy.

In some cases, insiders told the Daily Mail, DeWitt-Snow pushed for or favored candidates over the stated objections of the agency leaders, causing frustration and further delays in the hiring process.

In other instances, time-sensitive vacancies have languished for months, even after the agencies submitted lists of qualified candidates to the White House office for vetting and review.

Those frustrations are now shaping the response to Wiles’s departure – and the ascent of newly promoted White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

Insiders see Miller’s role as an opportunity to potentially accelerate hiring and fill crucial government vacancies – and determine the fate of the Wiles-loyal staff inside the personnel office.

The number of Senate-confirmed vacancies in the second Trump administration is at its highest point since the Reagan administration, according to data compiled by the Partnership for Public Office, a government watchdog group.

And the vacancies are even more of an issue for the Trump administration now, insiders said, as the administration stares down the looming ‘blue wave’ of Democrats who are poised to retake the Senate majority come January.

A spokesperson for the White House dismissed the accounts of personnel office delays and frustration as ‘100 percent fake news.’

‘Under Dan Scavino and Morgan DeWitt-Snow’s leadership, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel is operating more efficiently than ever before,’ White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Mail.

‘Morgan has done an incredible job hiring highly qualified, hardworking patriots who are committed to advancing President Trump’s America First agenda.’

The White House did not respond to follow-up questions from the Daily Mail regarding the level of involvement Adelson had in nominating Ligris to the DOJ or the agency’s response to the nomination.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.