President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, delivered a blistering internal critique of Attorney General Pam Bondi in an unusually candid interview with Vanity Fair, faulting the nation’s top prosecutor for mishandling the release of the long-awaited Epstein files and igniting backlash from the conservative base.
The remarks emerged in a two-part profile by Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple, published Tuesday after months of on-the-record conversations with Wiles, one of the most powerful — and typically most private — figures in the Trump White House. In the interview, Wiles did not mince words when describing Bondi’s approach to the Epstein disclosures.
Wiles took direct aim at the March rollout in which a group of prominent right-wing influencers were given binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1,” a move that quickly drew criticism when the contents revealed no new or substantive information. The episode sparked outrage across the MAGA movement and even led to calls for Bondi’s resignation.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles told Whipple. She described the binders bluntly as “binders full of nothingness.”
Wiles also addressed Bondi’s earlier public claims about the existence of an Epstein client list. During a February appearance on Fox News, Bondi had said the list was “on my desk right now,” a statement that later unraveled when an FBI report confirmed no such document existed.
“And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk,” Wiles said. “There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”
The Vanity Fair piece revealed a side of Wiles rarely seen in public: sharply opinionated, deeply involved in internal disputes, and unafraid to criticize senior officials. The article also included her colorful labels for other figures in the administration, referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as “Quirky Bobby” and calling Elon Musk an “odd duck,” among other descriptions.
Not long after the story was published, Wiles forcefully pushed back, accusing Vanity Fair of mischaracterizing her words and intentions. She called the profile a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
Wiles said the magazine omitted significant context and selectively presented comments to portray the administration as chaotic. “Much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she said, arguing the framing was designed to create an “overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative.”
She defended the administration’s record, asserting that the Trump White House has already “accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years,” crediting Trump’s leadership and vision for the pace of progress.
“For whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade,” Wiles added, closing with a defiant message: “None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!”
The episode underscores the intense internal pressure surrounding the Epstein issue and highlights the high stakes for administration officials navigating expectations from both the public and the conservative base.
[READ MORE: White House Chief of Staff Give Candid Interview]
