Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. (born August 2, 1962) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the 10th United States secretary of veterans affairs from 2018 to 2021, during the first Trump administration. He was previously Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness from November 2017 to July 2018. A Naval intelligence officer in the Reserve, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in the administration of President George W. Bush.
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Early life and education
Wilkie was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, and attended Salisbury Cathedral School in England and Reid Ross High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The son of a career Army artillery officer, he grew up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Wilkie received his B.A. degree from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He received a J.D. degree from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in 1988 and an LL.M. degree in international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Wilkie served in the United States Navy Reserve; he is currently in the United States Air Force Reserve, where he holds the rank of Colonel.
Career
Congressional staffer and George W. Bush administration official
Wilkie was a longtime Republican congressional staffer. He began his career on Capitol Hill as counsel to Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and later became legislative director for Representative David Funderburk.
In 1996, Wilkie unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in North Carolina's 7th congressional district. He was later the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party during Helms' reelection attempt against Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt.
Wilkie then returned to Capitol Hill as counsel and advisor on international security affairs to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott from 1997 to 2003. In that role, Wilkie led negotiations on the post-September 11 authorization for the use of military force and worked to defeat U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
From 2003 to 2005, in the George W. Bush administration, Wilkie was special assistant to the President for national security affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council. He was a senior policy advisor to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as well as her successor, Stephen Hadley. He later moved to the Pentagon, where in 2007, as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, Wilkie authored a memo outlining guidelines that limited which Defense Department personnel could testify to Congress. Wilkie's memo directed that only highest-ranking officers and presidentially appointed civilians could offer congressional testimony, barring all field-grade officers and enlisted personnel from testifying. Described as an attempt to "establish guidelines on how junior officers and the enlisted be contacted on their participation in the aforementioned briefings," critics of the guidelines argued at the time that they could impede investigations of the Iraq War, and that the Pentagon had no authority to set such rules. The memo did not impact congressional subpoenas, in which Congress can compel any individual to appear.
Wilkie holds personal and unit decorations as well as the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest civilian award of the Department.
Private sector and return to congressional staff
From 2010 to 2015, Wilkie was vice president for strategic programs for CH2M Hill, an engineering company. According to his official biography, he worked on reform of Britain's Ministry of Defence supply and logistics system.
From 2015 to 2017, Wilkie was a senior advisor to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis.
In 2019, after the resignation of Jim Mattis, Wilkie lobbied the Trump White House for an appointment as Secretary of Defense, but was not chosen for the position.
First Trump administration
Wilkie worked on Donald Trump's presidential transition team. President Trump nominated Wilkie to the post of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in July 2017. The Senate confirmed the nomination by unanimous consent on November 16, 2017.
On March 28, 2018, Trump announced via Twitter that Wilkie would serve as interim Secretary of Veterans Affairs until the Senate confirmed a successor. President Trump nominated Ronny Jackson to be VA secretary, but on May 18, 2018, after Jackson's nomination was withdrawn, President Trump nominated Wilkie to the position. On July 23, 2018, Wilkie's nomination as VA secretary was confirmed by the Senate by an 86–9 vote. He was sworn in on July 30, 2018.
In March 2020, the Trump White House appointed Wilkie to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The VA Office of Inspector General (IG) determined that Wilkie and his senior staff sought to discredit a woman who reported being sexually assaulted by a contractor at the D.C. Medical Center (the flagship VA hospital in Washington, D.C.) and impugn her credibility. The woman, a U.S. Navy veteran and an aide to the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, made the report in the fall of 2019; prosecutors declined to file sexual assault charges.
Wilkie and his senior staff openly questioned the veterans' account and suggested that her report was politically motivated. In February 2020, Wilkie abruptly fired James Byrne from his position of deputy secretary of veterans affairs. The dismissal was a surprise because Byrne had been popular among veterans' groups and was seen as a loyalist to Wilkie. Wilkie said that Byrne "was not jelling with other members of the team." Byrne later said he was fired because he declined to participate in an effort by Wilkie to smear the woman, telling Stars & Stripes, "I've gotten crossways with Wilkie over the [sexual assault] matter by refusing to trash this woman."
In a 68-page report issued in December 2020, VA IG Michael J. Missal determined that "The tone set by Secretary Wilkie was at minimum unprofessional and at worst provided the basis for VA leaders' attempts to undermine the veteran's credibility" and concluded that "Using denigrating remarks and questioning the credibility of a veteran who reported being sexually assaulted, and then failing to fully explore the facts, is ... contrary to the ongoing missions of improving VA and of serving the veteran community with respect." The IG did not substantiate an allegation that Wilkie had accessed the complainant's military and electronic health records, or asked others to do so, in an attempt to "dig up dirt" on her.
Personal life
He is married to Julia Wilkie, whom he has known since childhood.