The Department of Defense awarded a contract worth up to $200 million to an artificial intelligence company whose CEO said that President Donald Trump was a “legitimate threat to the rule of law” and likened him to a “feudal warlord.” 

Anthropic, a San Francisco-based company with extensive links to Democrats, was awarded a contract earlier this month to develop national security AI capabilities for the Pentagon. This contract comes after CEO Dario Amodei lambasted Trump as a “clown” who appointed “idiots” to government positions. 

Beginning with a $2 million award, Anthropic will work with the Defense Department to “anticipate and mitigate potential adversarial uses of AI” and the exchange of “technical insights, performance data, and operational feedback to accelerate responsible AI adoption across the defense enterprise.” 

By the end of the project, the company, which created AI chatbot Claude, could be awarded 200 million in taxpayer dollars. 

According to the Department of Defense, the project will mainly take place in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and will focus on developing “prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in across warfighting and enterprise domains.”

Before the company was awarded the lucrative contract, Amodei had a history of decrying Trump and urging voters to back Democrats. 

“But the stakes are too high for me not to say where I stand. Harris will be the steadier hand and the more trustworthy leader in an age of rapid and disruptive technological change,” he said in a Facebook post before the 2024 election.

Amodei did admit in the post that he was not speaking for Anthropic and that he would “try to find areas of agreement and opportunities for good policy making” regardless of who was elected.

Over the years, Amodei has donated extensively to Democrats, including $37,800 to President Joe Biden, $20,700 to Hillary Clinton, and $47,750 to the DNC, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In another Facebook post from 2018, wrote that Trump “represents a serious and legitimate threat to the rule of law,” said that Trump “appoints idiots to important government positions,” and urged Americans to “vote against this clown.”

He said that a “feudal warlord lens” explained a lot about how Trump operates. 

“He sees the Attorney General as someone whose job is to protect him personally, rather than someone whose job is to enforce the laws, he sees the White House Counsel as responsible for abetting his illegal actions, rather than advising him on what is or isn’t legal,” he wrote. 

The CEO also opined on gerrymandering, urging the adoption of measures that “would effectively abolish the Electoral College.” He claimed that voting for Democrats was the only way to address gerrymandering in the country.

Last week, Dario attended an event with Trump last week at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania as Anthropic committed $2 million to the university for AI and technology research.

Anthropic also has other close ties to Democratic donors and former Biden administration officials. 

During its early stages, the company received backing from Dustin Moskovitz, a billionaire entrepreneur who donated around $37 million to a PAC backing Harris. Netflix founder Reed Hastings, another prominent Democrat donor, sits on the board of Anthropic. Former Biden advisers who now work with Anthropic include Elizabeth Kelly, Tarun Chhabra, Benjamin Merkel, and Ben Buchanan.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Trump laid out details of his AI action plan, which included plans to require companies that get federal contracts to have ideologically free chatbots. The Daily Wire has previously reported on how OpenAi’s ChatGPT will help kids get access to abortion pills and attack crisis pregnancy centers.

Anthropic said that there was “alignment” between its goals and Trump’s action plan.

“We look forward to working with the Administration to implement these initiatives while ensuring appropriate attention to catastrophic risks and maintaining strong export controls,” Anthropic said Wednesday. “Together, we can ensure that powerful AI systems are developed safely in America, by American companies, reflecting American values and interests.”

A House Oversight panel voted on Wednesday to subpoena files regarding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and testimony from former President Bill Clinton, his wife and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and several ex-law enforcement leaders.

NBC News reported the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee passed a motion from Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) to issue a subpoena to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for records from Epstein-related investigations.

“The American people deserve transparency and accountability, and his victims deserve justice,” Lee declared in a post on X. “The wealthy and powerful are not above the law.”

Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Scott Perry (R-PA) and Brian Jack (R-GA) joined with five Democrats in approving the measure. Subcommittee Chairman Clay Higgins (R-LA) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) voted against it.

As noted by The Hill, Mace succeeded in amending the motion to ensure that the identities of victims, personally identifying information, and possible child sexual abuse material are redacted.

The panel also voted to approve a motion from Perry to subpoena the Clintons, former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, and former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, Eric Holder, William Barr, Loretta Lynch, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzales.

Further, lawmakers opted to pass a measure from Biggs to demand “all communications between President Biden or the Biden officials and the prosecuting agency related to the Epstein prosecutors also be released.”

The subpoenas, which must be signed off by Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), “will be issued in the future,” a panel spokesperson told reporters.

Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender with connections to several high-profile people, was found dead at the age of 66 in his New York City jail cell in 2019 — after being arrested on sex trafficking charges involving young girls.

A growing number of lawmakers have been pushing GOP House leadership on the disclosure issue after the Trump administration’s DOJ claimed it had no evidence that Epstein had a client list, blackmailed powerful people, or was murdered.

In adherence to an earlier vote from a different subcommittee this week, Comer announced on Wednesday that he subpoenaed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to participate in a deposition on August 11 at a federal correctional facility in Florida.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. Her attorney told CNN that a discussion with the DOJ would inform how Maxwell would proceed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi asked judges to unseal grand jury testimony from the cases against Epstein and Maxwell at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has argued that people are falling for a “hoax” spun by the Democrats.

One federal judge denied the Trump administration’s request in Florida. on Wednesday. CBS News reported that judges who oversaw other cases in New York have yet to decide how to proceed.

A potential House vote on demanding the Trump administration release secret documents it has on Epstein, the focus of a bipartisan discharge petition that would force leadership’s hand, likely will not happen until after the August recess.

Democrats have accused GOP leadership of balking on Epstein transparency, while Republicans have raised questions about why their colleagues across the aisle did not seem interested in the issue when they had power.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said this week that Congress needs to give the Trump administration “space,” but would consider action if it became necessary. He also said House Republicans want “maximum transparency.”