DARLENE SUPERVILLE and BILL BARROW.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is criticizing Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and broadly defending Donald Trump’s second presidency in a series of interviews published Tuesday. Wiles told Vanity Fair that Bondi mismanaged the Epstein case with talk of information about case files sitting on her desk. On Venezuela, Wiles says Trump will continue to be aggressive, and she also is defending Trump’s retribution against people he perceives as political enemies. Wiles is typically behind the scenes but the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff is widely viewed as an influential figure whom the president respects.