Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE has hired Republican operative David Bossie to be his deputy campaign manager.

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Trump told The Washington Post about the hire in a phone call Thursday.

"A friend of mine for many years," he said. "Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win."

New Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Bossie will be helping her with the campaign’s operations and planning.

"He's a battle-tested warrior and a brilliant strategist," she said. "He's a nuts-and-bolts tactician as well, who's going to help us fully integrate our ground game and data operations, and help with overall strategy as my deputy."

Bossie is the president of Citizens United, a conservative group best known for its namesake lawsuit that opened the door to political spending from corporations, nonprofits and other organizations.

Bossie got his start working on the Senate’s investigation of the Clintons' Whitewater real estate controversy in the '90s before being tapped by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich to be the House Oversight Committee’s chief investigator.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJoe Biden looks to expand election battleground into Trump country Biden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden goes on offense MORE campaign chairman John Podesta blasted the new hire in a statement Thursday night.

"David Bossie is so craven and maniacal that in the heyday of the overreaching, Gingrich-era Congress, the top Whitewater conspiracy theorist in the House had to fire him for doctoring evidence," Podesta said. "He has devoted his career ever since to trying to tear down Hillary Clinton. For months now, Citizens United has been acting as an arm of the Trump campaign, and this hiring of Bossie now makes it official. This is just the latest sign that Donald Trump has put the most extreme elements of the right-wing fringe in the driver's seat of his campaign."

Bossie was reportedly fired from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for his role in selectively editing transcripts from a Clinton administration official to cast blame on Hillary Clinton.

The Clinton campaign similarly seized on another recent Trump hire: Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of the right-wing Breitbart News.