Two Democratic senators are seeking more information about White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ knowledge of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin of the Judiciary Committee and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of the Oversight Subcommittee had six questions for Wiles in a letter on Tuesday. Wiles, in an eyebrow-raising Vanity Fair interview earlier this month, claimed that she had read “the Epstein file” and confirmed Trump was in them, but said he was not depicted “doing anything awful.”
“Please be kind enough to explain when and where and under what authority you gained access to this material,” the senators wrote. They then asked Wiles what materials she was talking about when she said she had read “the Epstein Files,” when she gained access to them and why, and whether she shared anything she read with Donald Trump.
“Please describe your role in any process related to the review, redaction, withholding, or release of material in the ‘Epstein file,’ including any processes involving the Department of Justice or Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the pair also asked, in light of how the government has not fully adhered to the deadline—and in some cases, the redaction criteria—of the law requiring the release of the files.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Regarding the Epstein files, Wiles had told Vanity Fair that Attorney General Pam Bondi came up short.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles, 68, told author Chris Whipple. “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.”
Trump has desperately tried to put to rest concerns about his ties to Epstein, the dead sex offender who said he was once Trump’s “closest friend” prior to their falling out in the mid-2000s. But his reluctance to have the Justice Department release its files—up until he knew he had lost Republicans in Congress—has done anything but.
