It was a surprise in September 2017 when Donald Trump’s longtime bodyguard and confidante, Keith Schiller, suddenly left the White House, apparently pushed out by Trump’s new chief of staff John Kelly. Schiller had worked for Trump since 1999 and if anyone knows where the ‘bodies were buried,’ this is the guy. Now we know Republicans have kept him close at hand, rewarded with a hefty $15,000 for “security consulting” with the Republican National Committee. From CNBC:
According to an RNC official, Schiller is being paid for security consulting on the site selection process for the 2020 Republican National Convention. Schiller's fee comes out of the RNC's convention fund, and not its campaign fund, the official noted.
Campaign finance watchdog groups, however, were quick to cry foul.
"These sorts of party accounts are notorious for being operated as slush funds – lightly regulated and ripe for abuse," said Stephen Spaulding, former special counsel at the Federal Election Commission and now chief of strategy at the nonpartisan advocacy group Common Cause.
Spalding went on to describe why these funds are favored for ‘slush fund’-type payments:
"Trump's bodyguard's firm is getting a fat payout from the RNC and its deep pocketed donors," said Spaulding, who noted that individual contributors "can give a whopping $101,700 per year to the RNC's convention account."
Already, Schiller's $15,000 monthly "site selection consulting fee" is more than he made working in the White House, where his annual salary was $165,000. It's also more than Schiller made working for the Trump campaign, which reported paying KS Global Group $10,000 a month starting in July of 2016.
Absolutely nobody spoke to Donald Trump without going through or past Keith Schiller, who personally delivered women to Trump’s private hotel suites. From Ronan Farrow’s article in The New Yorker on Trump’s accusers, detailing the emerging pattern of Trump’s lecherous behavior:
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” alleged that Trump assaulted her at a private dinner meeting, in December of 2007, at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Trump, Zervos has claimed, kissed her, groped her breast, and suggested that they lie down to “watch some telly-telly.” After Zervos rebuffed Trump’s advances, she said that he “began thrusting his genitals” against her. (Zervos recently sued Trump for defamation after he denied her account.) All three women say that they were escorted to a bungalow at the hotel by a Trump bodyguard, whom two of the women have identified as Keith Schiller. [emphasis added]
Schiller recently spent four hours testifying before the House Intelligence Committee and played a role in the most salacious part of Steele dossier as well (i.e. the Russian prostitutes and the pee-pee tape). He denied Russian prostitutes visited Trump’s room, but he did confirm there was an offer. His comments were reported by NBC News:
The two sources said Schiller's comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes Trump having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller described his reaction to that story as being, "Oh my God, that's bull----," two sources said.
The conversation with the Russian about the five women took place after a morning meeting about the pageant in Moscow broke up, two sources said.
That night, two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with Trump as Trump was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone. Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump's hotel room for a time and then went to bed.
It’s crystal clear there is no daylight between Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee. They are thick as thieves.