Katie Zacharia Was Linked to an AI Rare-Earths Startup. It’s Even Weirder Than It Sounds

Before being fired five days into her stint as White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia spent much of the day attempting to explain her past.

Throughout her brief tenure, Zacharia’s résumé was the source of much intrigue. Foremost was the fact that despite claiming to be an attorney for much of her career, she never actually passed the California bar, as she was eventually forced to admit. Another element of her professional history, WIRED reported, was a role as an affiliate marketer for Beachbody, a fitness multilevel marketing company.

WIRED has now uncovered new details of her relationship to an AI-powered rare-earth mining operation called NRED Intelligent Mining, which counts former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem as a strategic adviser.

On June 24, NRED—then known as NovaRed Mining, a small copper-and-gold exploration company in Vancouver, Canada—issued a press release to share that Zacharia, who had left a role as a DHS spokesperson two months before, was joining the advisory board alongside Noem.

In her new role, according to the release, Zacharia would provide “strategic guidance” to NovaRed’s board of directors as it advanced exploration projects, as well as “emerging artificial intelligence initiatives.”

It does not appear, though, that she ever worked there. When asked on Friday whether she was still on the board, she said, “That was fake,” and referred WIRED to Sam Amsterdam, a “strategic marketing and media engagement professional” whose clients have included the government of Kazakhstan and political parties in Georgia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

“That release was not approved by Ms. Zacharia and was issued without her consent,” says Amsterdam, whose brother is listed as a member of NRED management on the company’s website and said he was speaking as a friend and colleague of Zacharia, not a representative. “I know all that to be factual.” He quickly added that while there had been discussions of her joining the company, she hadn’t actually done so.

Valentin Saitarli, who was NRED’s chief technology officer and says he is onboarding as CEO, confirmed that there were discussions about a role but said that it “never materialized,” adding, “It was a bit like signing up for a gym but never actually going for a workout.” Describing NRED, Saitarli says, “We go full robots and AI.”

Despite Amsterdam’s understanding that it had been withdrawn, the press release claiming Zacharia was joining the company remained on NRED’s website as of Friday. An archived version of the website showed Zacharia listed as management as of at least July.