The Justice Department wants to stop White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles from testifying in a foreign lobbying case that dates to her tenure at Ballard Partners.
Wiles, a former lobbyist, was subpoenaed to testify in a criminal foreign lobbying case against ex-GOP Rep. David Rivera (Fla.) for charges involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act and work for Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrin.
She has been called to testify on matters related to work at Ballard Partners in 2017 and 2018 for Globovision, a Venezuelan television network.
Even though Wiles worked at Ballard Partners at that time for the client, “she has no apparent connection to any of the allegations in the superseding indictment concerning defendants’ activities as unregistered agents of the Government of Venezuela,” the Justice Department wrote in a recent court filing.
The trial is set to begin next month in Florida.
Defense lawyers in the case “intend to ask Ms. Wiles ‘about extensive communications between herself and others regarding U.S. lobbying work that Ballard Partners had been contracted to perform during 2017-2018 for Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrin,’” the filing states.
The filing says that the superseding indictment “describes” the defendants’ efforts to normalize relations between the US and Venezuela with communications, including with then-Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who now serves as secretary of State, and strategist Kellyanne Conway, who worked in the first Trump administration.
Bloomberg Government reached out to the White House for comment.
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