Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has chastised Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files saga.
In an extraordinary and lengthy profile in Vanity Fair, Wiles blasted the decision to hand over part of the Epstein files to MAGA influencers in February, as well as Bondi’s claim to Fox News that Epstein’s so-called “client list” was “sitting on my desk for review.”
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles told Vanity Fair. “First, she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”
The DOJ released what it called “phase 1” of the Epstein files to MAGA figures such as “Libs of TikTok” creator Chaya Raichik and Rogan O’Handley, better known as the far-right social media personality D.C. Draino.
Rather than revealing new incriminating details about Epstein, February’s document release consisted largely of previously leaked information, including that Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet multiple times in the 1990s.
Wiles blasted Bondi’s decision to release the documents to people who were part of a group that had “really appreciated” the idea that there could be a possible scandal and cover-up surrounding Epstein’s crimes.
This group includes FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, two former MAGA podcasters who now hold the top two positions at the FBI. Wiles also noted that Vice President JD Vance was another Republican figure who had called for the full release of the Epstein files, telling Vanity Fair that he had been a “conspiracy theorist for a decade.”
“For years, Kash has been saying, ‘Got to release the files, got to release the files,’” Wiles said. “And he’s been saying that with a view of what he thought was in these files that turns out not to be right.”
In July, the DOJ and the FBI denied the existence of a so-called Epstein “client list”—despite Bondi claiming in February that the list was on her desk ready to “review”—and announced that no further Epstein files would be released. The move sparked an outcry that continues to engulf Trump and his presidency.
Last month, Congress passed a bill requiring the DOJ to release all documents from its long-running Epstein investigation by Dec. 19.
Wiles told Vanity Fair that she completely underestimated how much controversy the Trump administration’s walkback of its vow to release the Epstein files would generate.
She added that while she was aware of Epstein’s child sex trafficking crimes, they were “never anything I paid a bit of attention to.”
Elsewhere, Wiles acknowledged that Trump—a close friend of Epstein for years—will appear in the late pedophile’s records, but not because he was “doing anything awful.”
In another extraordinary remark, Wiles admitted that Trump was spreading fake news when he claimed that former President Bill Clinton had visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island of Little St. James 28 times.
“There is no evidence,” she said. “The president was wrong about that.”
In response to the Vanity Fair profile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast, “President Trump has no greater or more loyal adviser than Susie. The entire administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
Wiles also described the reports as a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.
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