Trump aide’s ally helps State Dept staffer regain job after controversy

Gavin Wax, chief of staff in the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, was placed on administrative leave in July after accusations ranging from assault to arranging a lunch with pro-Kremlin Serbian politicians. After a “Hail Mary” phone call to Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s senior personal counsel, the president intervened and the leave was rescinded, sources say. The decision angered Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior officials, who view it as a challenge to departmental discipline.

State Department spokesperson Dylan Johnson called the reports false. Wax is slated to join the U.S. Agency for Global Media after paternity leave, and his former boss Sarah Rogers will also move there. Trump’s longtime aide Natalie Harp, who texts Wax, has not been implicated in the job-saving effort.