House Republican Pressed on Accusations She Used AI to Write a Defense Bill

 
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., speaks before a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Washington.

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Capitol Hill reporter Pablo Manríquez caught up with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) on Wednesday and asked her about accusations that she used AI to draft the text of a defense bill amendment she proposed.

Screenshots of an amendment summary for the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act from Luna started to go viral and prompted a reply from the Florida Republican on social media. The screenshot read:

Identical to H.R. 100 (118th Congress).11:25 AM????Claude responded: Requires the Secretary of Defense to designate Department of Defense activities, support, and operations at the southwest land border as a named operation with…

“Not a shocker. Most staff use it. I have told them to make sure they are double-checking and more thorough,” Luna wrote on X, later editing her reply to say, “Yeah, my staff used AI to spell/grammar check the amendment SUMMARY, not the actual amendment text itself.”

“I got a fun one, a clear leader question, if you don’t mind, is that cool? Okay, so Congresswoman, what do you say to critics who are saying that you are using ChatGPT to write legislative texts?” Manríquez asked Luna.

“Did you see our response?” Luna replied.

Manríquez added, “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, so I’d say a majority of people do use AI to now spell-check, but it’s actually not legal for people to post or to actually submit legislation to the House on that, and actually, we issued a statement clarifying — and actually made fun of the person that did that,” Luna replied, adding:

Because they also used my swimsuit photos from when I was in, you know, my previous modeling career, to try to say that me pushing for issues like banning insider trading is doing it for attention. So I would say that you’re probably a more reputable outlet than the Daily Mail, and it is what it is, but you should definitely post my response to that because, you know, I did tease my staff a little bit about it. I was like, “really? Summarize on Claude,” but, you know, if you’re looking for a good platform, Claude’s pretty good, Claude’s better.

“Okay, and you’re on the DEFIANCE Act, right?” Manríquez followed up, referring to the bipartisan bill to punish the creation of sexually explicit non-consensual deepfakes.

Luna relied, “I am.”

“Yeah, so what do you make of people using your photos from your previous career like that? Is that intrusive?” Manríquez asked.

“I mean, they’re not photoshopped. I just think that if you’re going to be considered a legitimate journalist, and then you’re using my swimsuit photos — which, by the way, I love a swimsuit, and it’s not a bad photo — but if you are using it for clickbait, then maybe you should probably go touch some grass. I mean, at least come with a substantive argument,” Luna replied.

Watch the clip above.

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Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing