Kathy Zacharia was associated with an AI startup Rare-Earths. It's even stranger than it sounds

The short-term White House press secretary was listed as an adviser to a Christy Nome-related company that aims to use artificial intelligence for mining. Both the company and he say he never worked there.

Kathy Zacharia spent most of the day explaining her past five days before she was fired from her role as White House press secretary.

Zakaria's resume was the source of many intrigues during his short tenure. Above all was the fact that, despite claiming to be a lawyer for most of his career, he never passed the California bar, as he was eventually forced to admit. Another element of her career history was a role as an affiliate marketer for Beachbody, a fitness MLM, WIRED reported.

WIRED has now uncovered new details about its relationship with an AI-based rare earth mining operation called NRED Intelligent Mining, which counts former DHS Secretary of Homeland Security Christy Nome as a strategic advisor.

On June 24, NRED — then known as NovaRed Mining, a small copper and gold exploration company in Vancouver, Canada — released a statement sharing that Zakaria, who left as DHS spokesman two months earlier, was joining the advisory board alongside Nome.

In his new role, Zacharias will provide "strategic guidance" to NovaRed's board as it advances exploratory projects as well as "emerging AI initiatives," according to the release.

However, it does not appear that he ever worked there. When asked Friday if he was still on the board, he said, "It was fake," and referred WIRED to Sam Amsterdam, "a strategic marketing and media engagement specialist" whose clients include the government of Kazakhstan and political parties in Georgia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

"This prescription was not approved by Ms. Zacharia and was issued without her consent," said Amsterdam, whose brother is listed as a member of NRED's management on the company's website. "I take all this to be true." He was quick to add that while there had been talk of him joining the company, he hadn't actually done so.

Valentin Citarelli, who was NRED's chief technology officer and says he is joining as CEO, confirmed there had been discussions about a role but said it "never materialized," adding, "It was a bit like signing up for the gym, but never actually going to work out." "We're going full robots and artificial intelligence," says Saitarli, describing NRED.

Despite Amsterdam's understanding of its cancellation, a press release announcing Zakaria joining the company remained on NRED's website as of Friday. An archived version of their website shows that Zacharia has been listed as an administrator since at least July.

When WIRED asked Citarelli about it, he said the site was being updated.

Zakaria, whose role at NovaRed was announced eight days after Nome's appointment was announced, worked under Nome for about a month as DHS deputy press secretary for public affairs and is reported to have a close relationship with de facto DHS chief Corey Lewandowski. (He has no such connection with The Daily Mail.)

Nome's announcement that he was joining the advisory board of a Canadian mining company sparked protests from Canadians, who pointed to his past remarks referring to Canada as the "51st state." At the time, The Globe and Mail described NovaRed as a copper and gold exploration company that didn't generate any revenue. The newspaper noted that in January, NoraRed had only $65,689 in cash, which the company said "will not be enough to cover all of its expected expenses for the next 12 months."

But around spring, something changed. NovaRed began assembling its advisory board not with geologists and technical advisors – as is typical for a young mining company – but with heavy hitters from the defense sector, MAGA and other international bodies.

Earlier this month, NRED announced that it was moving away from its flagship Wilmack copper-gold project and putting all its resources into developing and commercializing MetalCore, an "artificial intelligence-assisted mineral exploration platform."

"I want to build a new generation of robotics and mining," Saitarli tells WIRED. "Do we want to be stuck in the Stone Age or the Horse Age? No, we want to live on Mars, spend time in hotels in space, have a wedding on the moon...hopefully bring robotics and artificial intelligence to global mining and beyond our planet."

Phil Ehrer, a retired US Navy SEAL who is running for Congress as a Florida Democrat, was brought to NovaRed earlier this year. "I know nothing about mining," Ehr told WIRED in a phone call. But I know we need more copper. "I know we need more vital minerals." He had only been with the company a few months when, he said, he was blindsided by NovaRed's announcement that Christy Nome and "another DHS spokeswoman" — who he recalled was Zacharia — had also been named to the advisory board.

"As far as I know, [Zacharia] came to me at the same time as Christy Nome without any consultation and it was just like a canvas," Ehr recalls.

Noem, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, was just overseeing ICE's disastrous occupation of Minneapolis, and Ehrer did not want to be contacted. So I asked the company, “Why is Christy Nome here? I just can't work with him because he's so controversial. We in the federal government are on different sides of right and wrong.

He thought it was strange that NovaRed seemed to be joining its ranks with people who, like him, didn't know much about the mining industry. He expected some geologists or technical advisors to be in the mix. Instead, some of the other hires include Gregory Fedon, who previously "served as a key advisor to the UAE royal family on a range of international projects," and media executive Lee Caplin, co-producer of HBO's True Detective series. Shortly after, Iher resigned from the advisory board and joined.

While he was trying to clarify the nature of his relationship with NRED, Zakaria was also concerned with other matters. On Thursday evening, while she still held her position as White House press secretary, Zacharias called a WIRED reporter to suggest they contact fitness influencer Jenelle Summers to "come on" to Beachbody, the MLM she was previously affiliated with and which Summers introduced her to.

Summers said she doesn't remember much about Zacharias — whom she said she met online — except that "he was always nice to me and someone who was into fitness and believed in the products and programs."

"To my recollection, he didn't do much with it," he added. Summers rejected the idea that he was involved in a "pyramid scheme," which is how Zacharia described the company to WIRED. "It's kind of old school thinking," Summers said. "It was a network marketing business model."

When asked what she thought of Zakaria's rise to fame, she said: “I have no opinion on it except to say that he has always been kind to me.

Zakaria did not respond to requests for comment on his firing. "Well, that's news to me!" Amsterdam told WIRED when asked if he had any comment on his release.