Scandal: A series examining corruption in leadership and its downstream consequences.
A pro-Russia Bosnian Serb leader secured a White House meeting with Susie Wiles, President Trump’s chief of staff and a powerful gatekeeper to the president. Her daughter separately visited the region, which her lobbying firm represents. The firm says that trip involved another client. The contacts raise questions about how Bosnia’s pro-Russia Serb leadership is seeking influence in Washington and access to Trump’s inner circle.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and her daughter, Katie, had separate encounters with Bosnian Serb officials in August and September 2026. The contacts involved the Russia-friendly leadership of Republika Srpska, whose government has a federal lobbying agreement with Continental Strategy, the firm where Katie Wiles is a partner.
Susie Wiles met Željka Cvijanović, the Serb member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three-person presidency, at the White House on Sept. 21. Katie Wiles visited Republika Srpska in August, according to Continental.
A photograph circulated by conservative activist Evi Kokalari shows Katie Wiles holding a rifle beside Željko Budimir, Republika Srpska’s interior minister. The Croatian news outlet tportal reported that the image was taken at a shooting range. CBS News said it had verified the photograph.
“Laws are like spiders’ webs; the big flies get through, while the little ones are caught.”
— Honoré de Balzac, The Firm of Nucingen (1838)
Scandal examines political misconduct, institutional failure, elite impunity and the systems that allow powerful people to escape accountability.
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