MAGA Influencer Outed as a Pentagon Employee in Bizarre Turn After Botching ‘Scoop’ State Dept. Spox Gave Her

FILE – The Department of Defense seal is seen on the podium in the Press Briefing room at the Pentagon, Oct. 29, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)

Jennica Pounds, who is more well-known as MAGA influencer DataRepublican on social media, was outed as a special government employee of the Department of Defense Monday. Pounds’s Pentagon employment came to light after a bizarre incident in which she claimed she was being “set up” by the deep state — but it was revealed she merely botched a “scoop” she was being handed by a State Department official.

Up until June, Pounds was a member of the credentialed Pentagon press corps. She had not disclosed her new gig with the Pentagon.

The story began to blow open on Friday, Aug. 21, when the X account for the far-right outlet AF Post wrote, “Jennica Pounds, aka Data Republican, a Department of War employee, alleges that Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers is attempting to ‘entrap’ Pounds by providing her with information to ‘leak’ under the guise of offering her a ‘scoop.'”

Per AF Post, Pounds also believed the “Deep State” — or Rogers — was “trying to set her up to commit a crime, in this case claiming Rogers is trying to entice her to leak sensitive information.”

“It’s not okay when the Deep State sets you up to commit a crime,” Pounds wrote in a now-deleted thread. “I have never been more angry in my life.”

On Monday, AP Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin posted on X, “The Pentagon confirms – ‘Ms. Pounds serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee.'”

CBS News’ National Security Coordinating Producer Jim LaPorta also confirmed, “DoD: ‘Ms. [Jennica] Pounds serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee and is no longer a credentialed journalist at the Pentagon. Her PFAC (press credential) expired in June 2026, and she did not seek a renewal. She began working for the Department in July 2026.'”

Pounds addressed the story on Monday. “I began working as a Special Government Employee for the Department of War in July, to serve the country in a more hands-on way,” she wrote on X.

“My press credentials at the Pentagon expired in June and I did not seek a renewal of those credentials,” she continued. “I currently am not a member of the Pentagon Press Corps and no longer attend briefings or events as a journalist.”

The Bulwark’s Will Sommer published a report on the story Monday night, writing:

In Pounds’s portentous telling, an unnamed official—soon after revealed to be Sarah B. Rogers, the undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State Department—had offered to leak her government documents about Cuba to publish as an ‘exclusive.’ While Pounds was initially enthusiastic, markings on the documents prompted her to panic that she was being set up. Had she published the documents, Pounds felt, she would’ve exposed herself to criminal prosecution. She took the news of her supposed entrapment directly to her audience.

But Rogers explained the markups that had Pounds thinking she was being set up.

“The ‘markings’ are FOIA redactions required even for voluntary disclosure,” Rogers wrote to Pounds on X. “To prove this isn’t a ‘trap,’ I will happily disclose the documents myself.”

The entire situation, in Sommer’s view, “highlights a real problem facing the Trump administration: a lack of talented media figures who can handle even the basic function of laundering the administration’s message.”

Pounds participated in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the White House — using AI to help expose government waste and fraud. Pounds, who is Deaf and nonverbal, is also an activist for the Deaf community.

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