The Pentagon has confirmed that prominent pro-Trump influencer Jennica Pounds, known online as DataRepublican, has been working inside the Defense Department as a special government employee, disclosing an arrangement that remained largely unknown while Pounds continued weighing in publicly on politically charged disputes.
The disclosure is drawing renewed attention to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's relationship with supportive online personalities and comes after more than a year of restrictions on the traditional Pentagon press corps. Pounds, who has nearly one million followers on X, previously held Pentagon press credentials before joining the government.
Her employment surfaced not through an official announcement but through an unusual public confrontation with State Department Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers. Pounds initially alleged that an unnamed "deep state" official had attempted to entrap her into improperly handling sensitive government material.
Rogers said she had offered Pounds Biden-era documents concerning Cuba as a potential exclusive, treating her as a friendly reporter who might be interested in the material. Pounds became alarmed after seeing markings on the documents and publicly suggested she might have been maneuvered into committing a crime.
Rogers disputed that characterization. She said the markings reflected standard redactions applied to material that could be voluntarily released under public-records procedures and offered to publish the documents herself to demonstrate that Pounds wasn't being set up.
As the dispute unfolded on X, an account critical of Pounds disclosed that she was working for the Defense Department. The Pentagon subsequently confirmed her employment to multiple news organizations.
Pounds "serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee and is no longer a credentialed journalist," the Pentagon said in a statement, using the Trump administration's renamed designation for the department. Officials said Pounds's media credentials expired in June and that she didn't seek to renew them before beginning her government role in July.
The Pentagon hasn't disclosed which office employs Pounds or described her responsibilities. Pounds said after her position became public that she joined the department to "serve the country in a more hands-on way."
That lack of detail has raised questions because Pounds remained an active political voice online while her government status wasn't publicly known. Her recent posts have included criticism of Democratic lawmakers and commentary involving a retired Army officer and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who has had disagreements with Hegseth.
Lauren Harper, who holds the Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said Pounds should have disclosed her government employment to her followers. The concern centers on whether audiences could distinguish independent commentary from communications produced by someone simultaneously working inside the government.
The episode has also renewed scrutiny of Adam D'Ortona, an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel with more than 100,000 X followers who has criticized congressional Democrats and supported Hegseth's campaign against diversity and inclusion programs at the Pentagon.
D'Ortona was reported last September to have been working inside Hegseth's office. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said at the time that he wasn't an adviser or department spokesperson, while D'Ortona this week denied that the Pentagon pays anyone to "post stories." The Army and Hegseth's office haven't provided additional details about his role.
The questions surrounding Pounds and D'Ortona come amid a broader transformation of media access under Hegseth. Beginning in May 2025, the defense secretary imposed restrictions requiring journalists to be escorted through Pentagon areas where reporters had previously been able to move independently.
The department subsequently required journalists to sign a new access policy covering the solicitation and publication of information that hadn't been authorized for release, including unclassified material. More than 30 news organizations-including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and Fox News-refused to sign, and dozens of journalists surrendered their Pentagon credentials in October 2025.
That same month, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell announced that more than 60 journalists from another group of organizations had agreed to the policy. Those outlets included Gateway Pundit, Turning Point USA's media operation, LindellTV, Timcast and the National Pulse, which Parnell described as part of the next generation of the Pentagon press corps.
A federal judge later concluded that the credentialing policy was intended to remove disfavored journalists, according to the supplied account. An appeals court subsequently allowed a related requirement that reporters be escorted inside the Pentagon to remain in effect while litigation continues.
