Overview
- Miles Taylor has publicly recounted that in October 2018 President Trump asked a White House aide about the possibility of wiretapping his own appointees, which rattled senior staff.
- Taylor says a group of appointees then met at a rural Virginia cabin and used Faraday bags—pouches that block radio signals—to keep phones from sending or receiving data during sensitive talks.
- He connects those 2018 reports to 2026 coverage that says White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel oversaw a leak investigation in which some staff were asked to surrender phones.
- At least one federal agency reportedly warned employees to contact agency lawyers if outside investigators sought devices, reflecting worries about legal risk and executive overreach.
- The narrative rests mainly on Taylor’s Substack account and contemporary reporting and has limited independent verification, but it spotlights broader concerns about the rule of law, FBI independence, and how staff respond when they fear surveillance.