Trump Picks Shahira Knight as New Legislative Director

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump chose economic aide Shahira Knight to be his next legislative director, the White House announced in a statement Thursday.

Knight played a key role in developing Trump’s tax plan and shepherding it through Congress last year.

She’ll start in her new role on Monday as the White House’s top liaison with Congress, said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of the personnel move that hadn’t yet been announced. The current legislative director, Marc Short, will briefly overlap with her until his departure July 20, the official said.

Short will join the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia effective Aug. 1, according to a statement from the university. Short will also become a partner at Guidepost Strategies, a Washington government relations and strategic communications firm.

More aides on the White House legislative affairs team are likely to depart soon, said a person familiar with their plans.

Knight spent time early in her career on the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee, where she worked on the Republican tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. After her time working at the Capitol, she was a lobbyist for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, then for Fidelity Investments.

--With assistance from Kevin Cirilli and Justin Sink.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning, Alexis Leondis

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