Donald Trump named one of his campaign co-chairs, Susie Wiles, as his White House chief of staff Thursday. But she also witnessed him break the law—and did nothing about it.
According to Trump’s indictment for mishandling classified documents, Trump showed Wiles a classified map during a 2021 meeting where he was discussing a military operation. The indictment didn’t name Wiles, but referred to a “PAC representative.” Later, ABC News, citing anonymous sources, identified Wiles as the representative.
Trump showed Wiles a map of an unidentified country, according to the indictment, while telling her about a military operation that he said “was not going well.” He said that he “should not be showing the map” to her and warned her “not to get too close.” Wiles did not have security clearance.
The indictment also mentioned that Wiles was part of a private chat on the secure messaging app Signal about whether Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of the Mar-a-Lago estate, was loyal to Trump. De Oliveira was a co-defendant, along with Trump aide Walt Nauta, in the classified documents case for helping to move around and transport documents on the estate.
Wiles didn’t come forward after having seen classified documents that Trump shouldn’t have shown anyone, let alone possessed, calling into question whether she can attain the necessary security clearance for a high-level position in the White House. Her part in a discussion about loyalty hints at her making sure that De Oliveira wouldn’t provide damning information against Trump in his classified documents case.
In July, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, claiming that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith to handle that case as well as Trump’s attempt to overturn the election on January 6, 2021 was unconstitutional. Trump faced 42 felony charges in the classified docs case related to willful retention of national security information, corruptly concealing documents, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Now that Trump will be returning to the White House, his choice of Wiles to be chief of staff shows that he is looking for personal loyalty above all else in the administration’s top positions. Wiles has already shown that she is willing to look the other way when Trump breaks the law, which means Trump can trust her to protect him if, as president, he decides to push his authority to its limits.
