Thiel, who made a $1,000,000 donation to a pro-Trump Super PAC, is Trump's highest-profile supporter in Silicon Valley.

At Thiel's Founder Fund, Stephens "focuses on startups operating in the government space," according to his official biography. Before that, he worked at another Thiel-backed firm: Palantir, a highly controversial data analysis firm that is currently competing for Defense Department contracts.

"Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in intelligence and defense as well as international expansion," says the biography.

Palantir gained notoriety in 2011 after the hacking collective LulzSec dumped thousands of hacked emails from HBGary Federal, a firm collaborating with Palantir to pitch clients, revealing plans to use Palantir's data analysis tools on a project to spy on labor unions, journalists, and activist groups on behalf of business interests. The proposal detailed a variety of surveillance techniques, including a PowerPoint presentation calling for the use of malware to steal data from target computers.