A consulting firm managed by Susie Wiles’s daughter received $15,000 from a hemp-industry political action committee just one week after Donald Trump called on Congress to revise an impending federal hemp ban, Our News Outlet can report.
Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (HIFA) paid Retriever Consulting on April 30 for “PAC Strategy Consulting,” according to federal campaign-finance filings. Florida corporate records identify Caroline Wiles, the former White House chief of staff’s daughter, as the company’s manager.
Caroline, 40, married Bret Worley, 30, at Trump’s Virginia winery in June. Her mother attended the wedding. Worley is the chief executive of hemp company MC Nutraceuticals and has served on HIFA’s board, while his father, Jeff, founded Retriever Consulting.
MC Nutraceuticals markets hemp-derived cannabinoids, including THC—the psychoactive compound in marijuana—to brands that use the substances in gummies, vapes and beverages.
A loophole in a 2018 law signed by Trump during his first term allowed companies such as Worley’s to provide THC for products sold at gas stations and smoke shops throughout the United States.
Congress voted last November to close that loophole, prompting the industry to warn that the ban could destroy its business. The measure would prohibit the THC products supplied by Worley’s company, while its strict potency limit could also capture many CBD products containing only trace amounts of THC.
On April 23, Trump posted on Truth Social that Congress needed “to update the Law” to protect full-spectrum CBD products. “We must get this done RIGHT and FAST, especially for those who saw that CBD helps them,” he wrote.
Congress subsequently postponed the ban, allowing products such as those sold by Worley’s company to remain on the market and shifting the fight to an end-of-year funding bill due by December 11. The White House has denied that Wiles played any role in lobbying for the delay.
Former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with her younger daughter, Caroline
Caroline Wiles, 40, married Bret Worley, 30, at Trump’s Virginia winery in June
A spokeswoman for Caroline said Retriever Consulting was “no longer in use and in the process of termination.” She also said Caroline “has not lobbied for HIFA or any specific company.”
The payment adds to scrutiny of the lobbying and consulting income linked to Wiles’s family. It comes one week after she resigned as chief of staff, with Democrats preparing to gain subpoena power in January.
“Fifteen thousand doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of money, but you have got to do something for it,” Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, told Our News Outlet.
“I think one of the questions that would come up is what services did the daughter perform for the contract?” Painter said. “I would have to do quite a bit of work to get $15,000.”
Painter said the timing “will certainly draw questions from Congress” and suggested the agreement’s records “could be subpoenaed by the House come January,” when Democrats assume control of the chamber they won last week.
Wiles, 69, stepped down as Republicans struggled after a midterm defeat that gave Democrats control of both the House and Senate.
As Trump’s chief of staff, she served as a key gatekeeper, controlling access to the president and helping determine what reached the Resolute Desk.
After the loss, Republicans and MAGA-aligned influencers turned against her, with some arguing that she should accept responsibility for the result.
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Calley Means, a former senior aide to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., went further, accusing Wiles of placing the interests of midterm donors above voters.
During a high-profile interview with Joe Rogan, Means alleged that Wiles blocked a federal review of children’s sugar consumption and told him: “I need the sugar industry money. I need the money for the midterms.”
Wiles rejected the allegation. A spokesperson described Means’s claims as “outrageous, defamatory, and provably false.”
Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat expected to chair the House Oversight Committee, has nevertheless said he plans to examine Means’s allegations. Attorney General Todd Blanche has stated that the Justice Department will not open an investigation.
The controversy has highlighted the flow of lobbying money through Trump’s Washington, where corporations pay millions of dollars to influence government policy.
Wiles spent nearly 10 years as a managing partner at Ballard Partners before leaving in 2019. Senate records show the firm’s federal lobbying revenue increased from under $20 million in 2024 to more than $88 million last year. It exceeded $98 million during the first nine months of this year.
Brian Ballard, the firm’s founder and a major Trump fundraiser, said Sunday that its dealings with Wiles while she was chief of staff “have been limited and have been the exception, not the rule.”
Trump and Wiles share lunch at the White House in March
Both of Wiles’s daughters work in the lobbying and influence industry, although a White House official said last month that Wiles “does not discuss work matters with her daughters.”
Wiles’s older daughter, Katie, is a partner at Continental Strategy, a lobbying firm that receives $35,000 a month from Republika Srpska, a pro-Russian entity in Bosnia.
Katie faced questions last month after a photograph showed her holding a rifle beside the region’s interior minister, who has received recognition from Vladimir Putin. Her firm said she has never discussed the region with US officials.
Caroline Wiles is vice president of federal affairs at Rubin, Turnbull & Associates, a Florida lobbying firm whose federal revenue rose from less than $200,000 in 2024 to more than $7 million in 2025—the first year her mother served in the West Wing. Senate records show the firm’s income surpassed $8 million in the first nine months of this year.
Since Caroline joined the firm, it has taken on e-cigarette maker JUUL, cannabis marketplace Weedmaps and Florida medical marijuana company Trulieve. The three clients have paid the firm $1.52 million and identified the White House among the offices lobbied, according to Senate records.
Caroline is not named as a lobbyist on any of those accounts and is not registered as a federal lobbyist.
“These Trump-related lobbying firms have got very, very wealthy on the Trump administration,” said Craig Holman, a lobbying specialist with the government watchdog Public Citizen.
“This is a clear line of direct influence peddling,” Holman told Our News Outlet. “Unfortunately it’s not illegal, but it does mark everything about the Trump administration.”
“If we got rid of someone like Susie Wiles out of the administration, someone like Caroline Wiles would not have that type of influence,” Holman said before Wiles resigned.
Our News Outlet has contacted the White House, Susie Wiles, Rubin Turnbull and the Worleys for comment.
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