President Donald Trump’s ally Susie Wills reportedly used her voice to be the target of a spoofing campaign.
The US government has launched an investigation into apparent efforts to impersonate White House Susie Wills in communication with politicians.
On Friday, White House officials confirmed that the investigation had been open to the Associated Press following a report on the Wall Street Journal’s impersonation the previous day.
An anonymous source told the Journal that the governor, business leader and senator received messages and calls from someone pose as Wills, a close associate of President Donald Trump.
Some recipients even told the newspaper that they used artificial intelligence to say the phone appears to replicate Wills’ voice.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the present came when a message asked about items Will should know about did not sound like her in any other way. For example, newspapers reported that some messages were either too formal or insufficient grammar.
The phone number used was also not the usual Wiles number. Still, some of the sources who spoke to the journal said they interacted with the scammers before realising that they were not actually themselves.
On Friday, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel issued a statement denounced the disguised campaign.
“Protecting the ability to communicate safely to achieve the president’s mission is a top priority,” Patel said.
Earlier this month, the station acknowledged that “malicious actors” appear to mimic government officials through “text and voice messaging campaigns.”
In Wiles’s case, a source nearby the Chief of Staff told the Wall Street Journal that someone hacked her personal cell phone, which then accessed her contacts.
A longtime Republican consultant, Wills has her political roots in Florida. There he was first serving as Chief of Staff for the Republican mayor of Jacksonville.
She then rose to a higher class in the political field, managing the governoral campaign of Republican leader Rick Scott, and later played a similar role in Trump’s two presidential bids.
In 2016, she led the operation for Trump’s first successful election campaign in Florida, and in 2024 served as his national campaign manager.
Two days after his re-election victory on November 7th, Trump announced he would accompany him to the White House as his chief of staff. Staff Chiefs will also coordinate policy development and oversee White House staff.
The FBI has yet to confirm how Wills’ personal contacts have come to her impersonation’s hands, but US media has pointed out that Trump’s presidential election was hacked by Iran in August 2024 and delicate documents were stolen.