Delta-8 is the MAGA of Cannabis.
“A Colorado man whose companies agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve consumer protection investigations is at the forefront of efforts to delay a federal ban on hemp and associates contended in litigation documents that he has claimed his ties to Trump’s chief of staff give him influence over White House policy.
Bret Worley, 30, of Denver is the chief executive of MC Nutraceuticals, which claims to be “the largest global supplier of cannabinoids.”
He married Susie Wiles’ younger daughter Caroline in June at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Va. Wiles is the president’s chief of staff.
A North Carolina hemp manufacturer in July 2025 sued Worley and his companies and contended in that federal claim that Worley boasted of “his business and political connections” and stated, “that he could, indirectly through his personal relationship with Caroline Wiles, secure political appointments and other favors.”
That lawsuit suggested Worley’s statements “of significant political power” through his relationship with the Wiles family were exaggerated to give him greater stature in the hemp industry and to attract investors.
Against this backdrop, a recent White House push to delay a ban on virtually all hemp products has generated pushback among Republicans in Congress critical of the hemp industry.
One congressman criticized Worley’s efforts to overturn the ban.
“People can draw whatever conclusion they want about the fact that, you know, a senior White House person’s relative makes millions of dollars from selling this product, including products that end up in children’s hands,” said U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who is pushing back against efforts to delay the ban on hemp products. “It is just not the right thing to do.”
Congress passed a law in November banning nearly all hemp-derived products starting this November. In so doing, federal lawmakers reversed the legalization of hemp that occurred in 2018, which was originally pushed as an economic boon to farmers. Critics of the 2018 legalization contended it ushered in a largely unregulated intoxicating hemp industry that went far beyond what Congress initially intended and allowed products that can be more intoxicating than marijuana to be sold in service stations and over the internet.
Regulators also expressed concern that hemp products could pose threats to consumers because of the chemicals used to turn hemp into products with the psychoactive compound THC that makes people feel high.
Trump signed the hemp ban.
In the last few days, numerous reports said the White House has pushed for nearly a monthlong delay in the hemp ban and has sought a regulatory framework instead that would allow many more hemp products to remain legal.
Last week, Wiles, the chief of staff, made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to huddle with Republican congressional leaders, according to news reports, bringing with her the White House legislative affairs director James Baird. Within days, a stopgap funding bill emerged from GOP leadership that also included a delay in the hemp ban. Some members of Congress have objected and said they will not pass the funding bill if it contains a delay in the ban on most hemp products.
The White House has denied that Wiles directly lobbied Congress to delay the hemp ban.
“The chief of staff has never lobbied in favor of this or any other position on hemp with Capitol Hill,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai. He added: “The only interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people.”
Harris, the Republican congressman, acknowledged he wasn’t privy to the conversations between Wiles and GOP senators, but he insisted the effort to delay the ban had clearly come from the White House and not Congress.
“I don’t know what she discussed with the senators,” Harris said. “I will tell you my impression is that she didn’t really need to discuss anything directly because the (White House) Office of Legislative Affairs was pushing this, as well as, you know, her domestic policy advisers, the White House’s domestic policy advisers.”
The emergence of the proposed delay in the ban as part funding bill was hailed by MC Nutraceuticals in a newsletter it sent to supporters.
“This position exists because the industry showed up,” according to the newsletter. “There’s one more push coming before year-end to make the rules permanent. When we send the word, it’ll matter — and we’ll only send it when it does.”
Harris said he objected to the “chest thumping” from Worley and his father, Jeff Worley, who is the chief financial officer of the company. The congressman said he would work to strip out of any funding legislation the delay in the hemp ban. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., was leading efforts in the Senate to keep the original hemp ban implementation date intact.
The U.S. Senate in an overnight vote Saturday approved a short-term measure to fund federal agencies into early December. That bill includes language delaying a national ban on most intoxicating hemp products.
Budd tried to strip the hemp delay from the bill, but the Senate turned aside his effort.
Worley is a member of the board of the trade group Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, which has spent $445,000 on lobbying Congress.
In 2025, the Worleys and their companies agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a consumer protection investigation into their hemp products by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office. The settlement document stated that the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office found the companies misrepresented to consumers “the source, quality, characteristics, ingredients and/or health benefits of their products.” The companies also falsely claimed to be operating in Texas when in fact the companies operated solely in Colorado, according to the settlement.
The companies agreed in the settlement to set up an age-verification system for their hemp products.
In December, the Worleys and the companies also agreed to pay a new fine of $75,000 for continuing to solicit Colorado consumers when the attorney general said their products are prohibited from being sold in Colorado. The new settlement stated the companies had continued to improperly test their products in testing laboratories that weren’t certified by state regulators.”
From The Denver Gazette.
