Trump Official Brought Hate Connections to the White House
President Trump鈥檚 Deputy Communications Director Julia Hahn had connections to the white nationalist movement around the time she joined the White House as an aide, based upon hundreds of private correspondences that were leaked to Hatewatch by a former colleague and friend.
The leaked emails show Hahn is connected to Peter Brimelow, whom she refers to at one point casually by his first name. Brimelow founded the white nationalist hate group VDARE. VDARE traffics in the conspiracy theory, which suggests that white people are being systemically replaced in Western nations by non-white people. VDARE has published commentary by one of the principal organizers of the deadly white supremacist 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and publicly that event on its third anniversary this August. Brimelow鈥檚 group has also 聽regarding the ideologies espoused by far-right mass murderers in El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand.
Additionally, the emails suggest that before Hahn joined the right-wing website Breitbart News as an editor, she attended a writer鈥檚 workshop with the white nationalist publishing house The Social Contract Press. Her story pitches to Breitbart News show influence of the type of white nationalist worldview espoused by VDARE and The Social Contract Press. For example, in one July 2016 pitch, Hahn wrote, 鈥淗ow many whites have been killed by blacks since Obama has been in office?鈥� 鈥� apparently seeking to draw a parallel between the election of America鈥檚 first Black president and Black people murdering whites.
Hahn also hyped the doomed congressional candidacy of Wisconsin鈥檚 Paul Nehlen聽in her writing for Breitbart News across at least 36 posts. Nehlen eventually used the fans he gained from his Breitbart News attention and from his failed stab at politics to become a notorious cheerleader for , calling mass murderers such as Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof and Brenton Tarrant 鈥渟aints.鈥� Although Nehlen鈥檚 rhetoric grew increasingly hateful after losing two primary races against former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, he was already a far-right extremist at the time Hahn repeatedly promoted his candidacy. Hahn promoted Nehlen at least four times in Breitbart News after he expressed an openness to the idea of .
Former Breitbart News editor Katie McHugh leaked over 600 of Hahn鈥檚 private emails to Hatewatch. McHugh delivered to Hatewatch emails taken from Hahn鈥檚 personal Gmail and her Breitbart News work email. She also leaked scores of text messages and Google Chat transcripts. McHugh, who once immersed herself in the anti-immigrant movement and rubbed shoulders with open white nationalists, has since renounced far-right extremism and racism. McHugh leaked to Hatewatch over 900 previously private emails聽authored by White House adviser Stephen Miller in 2019.
McHugh told Hatewatch that Hahn, her former friend and colleague, maintained a close relationship with Miller聽during Trump鈥檚 first campaign for president. Hahn pushed for favorable coverage of Miller, according to the emails. In February 2017, after Hahn had joined the White House as an aide to President Trump, the emails show she urged McHugh to write a favorable story about Miller as a way of blunting criticism of him published in The New York Times.
Hahn is 29 years old and comes from considerable wealth. Her grandfather, Harold Honickman, presides over the Honickman Group, a large soda and beer bottling conglomerate. Her role in the Trump administration is typically handled behind the scenes, and she rarely appears on camera. The White House 聽as the replacement for former deputy communications director Adam Kennedy in March, around the time that the COVID-19 pandemic became an issue of global importance. In August, the Times depicted Hahn as being the person who sometimes gathers talking points for White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
The White House criticized McHugh in a statement to Hatewatch but did not deny the authenticity of her correspondences with Hahn. Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere issued the following statement on Hahn鈥檚 behalf:
Julia Hahn rejects and condemns racism and hatred in all forms, and, as a Jewish American, finds bigotry of any kind to be truly abhorrent. Every story Julia wrote as a reporter at Breitbart is publicly available and has been since the day she left the publication nearly four years ago. These cherry-picked emails were leaked by a troubled individual who was terminated from Breitbart in disgrace, and 人兽性交 has stooped to a new low by giving her a platform.
Rubbing shoulders with white nationalists and other extremists
Hahn鈥檚 connection to Peter Brimelow goes back until at least 2014, the emails show. At that time, Hahn served as a producer for Fox News鈥檚 鈥淭he Laura Ingraham Show.鈥� On Oct. 28, 2014, Brimelow emailed McHugh, Hahn and Kevin DeAnna, an extremist writer and propagandist who has authored over 1700 articles for white nationalist websites, urging them to get together and meet. Brimelow mentioned a 鈥淲riter鈥檚 Workshop鈥� in that email. The white nationalist publishing house The Social Contract Press, which has ties to VDARE and similar hate groups, hosts a yearly writer鈥檚 workshop. McHugh told Hatewatch that the Social Contract Press event was what was being discussed in the email.
鈥淚 think I meant to send you Kevin and Katie鈥檚 email addresses 鈥� you met them at the Writer鈥檚 Workshop, she鈥檚 with Brietbart [sic]. You should all get together!鈥� Brimelow wrote.
McHugh told Hatewatch that Hahn was not closely connected to DeAnna, but knew Brimelow well. Hahn was close enough to Brimelow to refer to him by his first name, Peter, in an email dated Jan. 25, 2016.
鈥淯 shd maybe think abt intvwing Peter,鈥� Hahn wrote in the subject line of the email, referring to a story pitch for Breitbart News that McHugh recalled as being about far-right figures losing access to social media. 鈥淎nd writing story [sic] abt the purge. Might be interesting story for u to do...鈥�
Hatewatch reached out to Fox News and Breitbart News for a comment on this story but they did not respond. Brimelow responded to a similar request by asking the author to unblock his account on Twitter.
McHugh told Hatewatch that Hahn engaged with a social circle that overlapped with young extremists of the white supremacist-friendly 鈥�补濒迟-谤颈驳丑迟鈥� movement. Emails back up her claim. For example, Hahn met white nationalist and Daily Caller editor Scott Greer, the emails show. The Daily Caller cut ties with Greer in 2018 after The Atlantic reported he was writing for Richard Spencer鈥檚 publication Radix Journal under the pseudonym 鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚 think I met a friend of yours yesterday at a Daily Caller happy hour... I think his name was Scott... he鈥檚 an editor at the DC? He had lots of nice things to say about you!鈥� Hahn wrote on March 27, 2015.
鈥淎ww, I鈥檓 so glad you met Scott! We鈥檝e been friends since I moved down to DC in 2013! :) He鈥檚 very solid on immigration,鈥� McHugh replied.
鈥淗aha I figured as much since he said he was a good friend of yours :-),鈥� Hahn wrote back.
Hahn is also one of a handful of far-right figures looped in on an email with the subject 鈥淒inner?鈥� that McHugh sent on May 4, 2015, making plans to eat at the chain restaurant Ted鈥檚 Montana Grill. Devin Saucier, editor for the white nationalist website American Renaissance, and far-right extremists Chuck Johnson听补苍诲 Tim Dionisopoulos聽are looped in on the email with Hahn.
鈥淚 wish I could tomorrow, but I鈥檓 at a staff training retreat in Richmond until Wednesday night :/ But does this mean you're finally back in town?? Would love to get together any other time!鈥� Hahn wrote, apparently referring to Johnson with her question.
The White House told Hatewatch in a phone call that Hahn did not know Saucier or Dionisopoulos, even if they appeared in an email thread with her. The White House did not offer Hatewatch similar clarifications about Brimelow, Greer, Johnson or The Social Contract Press.
Like Miller, Hahn also kept in contact with the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).聽The group has promoted white nationalist writers in the past. Critics have suggested CIS鈥檚 reports present data in a way that paints immigration in a negative light. Hahn refers to CIS employees by name in her emails. She described herself as 鈥渃urrently working on big story w/ Jessica Vaughan鈥� in a July 17, 2015, email, referring to CIS鈥檚 Director of Policy Studies. In a Nov. 4, 2016, email, Hahn wrote, 鈥渃an you send link? Camarota was asking,鈥� referring to the link for a story McHugh authored. Camarota is Stephen Camarota, CIS鈥檚 director of research.
Hatewatch reached out to executive director Mark Krikorian for a comment on CIS鈥檚 connection to Hahn. He offered to answer specific questions but declined to provide a statement.
'Think you need to do a black on white crime #s story.'
McHugh told Hatewatch that a white nationalist worldview pervaded Hahn鈥檚 work at Breitbart News. Hahn鈥檚 writing at Breitbart News, and emails about issues of race, like Miller鈥檚 private emails, which McHugh leaked to Hatewatch聽in 2019, consistently portray people of color and Muslims in an intensely negative light. Sometimes, they paint non-white people as violent and dangerous.
Hahn wrote McHugh a story pitch on July 12, 2016, under the subject line, 鈥渢hink you need to do a black on white crime #s story.鈥�
鈥淗ow many whites have been killed by blacks since Obama has been in office?鈥� Hahn asked McHugh in the body of that email. McHugh did not reply to that email.
The email was hardly an isolated example of Hahn seeking to draw a link between non-white people and violence. Hahn consistently took a casual tone when discussing stories that portrayed immigrants as being criminal in her emails with McHugh. In one example, from Aug. 10, 2015, Hahn appeared accidentally to misuse the word 鈥渟tories鈥� instead of the word 鈥渕urders鈥� while referring to pitch about DACA recipients. McHugh told Hatewatch she believed Hahn made the mistake as a result of the culture of writing stories that depicted immigrants as being violent that pervaded Breitbart News under Bannon鈥檚 leadership.
鈥淒o you know of a couple stories off hand that were committed by DREAMers?鈥� Hahn asked McHugh.
Hahn took a similarly casual tone in discussing stories that portrayed Muslims in a negative light.
鈥淲hat was that brutal [M]uslim crime story you just did?鈥� Hahn wrote to McHugh on Oct. 2, 2015.
鈥淭he Oregon shooter? I just looked at my archive back til July and it鈥檚 mostly Hispanic immigrant crime,鈥� McHugh replied, referring to the male supremacist mass shooter聽Christopher Harper-Mercer, who was mixed-race but not Hispanic.
鈥淗mm ok, thanks. I thought there was a refugee one recently. Thanks though,鈥� Hahn replied.
Hahn also expressed interest in the issue of changing demographics, which is an animating issue聽for far-right extremists. On Nov. 23, 2015, Hahn wrote the words, 鈥淩ubio鈥檚 New American Century Arrives鈥� in reference to 聽suggesting that white Christians no longer made up a majority in the U.S. Anti-immigrant extremists, including Miller, sought to portray the Cuban-American Rubio in a negative light around the issue of immigration.
Hahn also showed an interest in keeping immigrant children locked in ICE detention centers. On Aug. 22, 2015, Bannon emailed Hahn, McHugh and Miller a link to 聽story about a Los Angeles-based judge who defied the Obama administration by ordering the release of immigrant children from ICE detention.
鈥淥utrageous. She's fanatical,鈥� Hahn wrote to the group, referring to the judge.
Hahn鈥檚 public-facing writing also promoted an extremist ideology, Hatewatch found. She authored 36 different posts hyping Wisconsin congressional candidate Paul Nehlen, helping give the obscure, anti-immigrant challenger to former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan a national profile.
Emails demonstrate how Breitbart News helped make Nehlen a known entity on the right. Following the publication of a June 8, 2016, story about Nehlen challenging Paul Ryan, editor Ezra Dulis told Hahn to put his name in the headline to help make him more findable in Google searches.
鈥淟et鈥檚 get Paul Nehlen's name in the headline 鈥� our readers know who he is by now and the change will boost this article to people Googling him,鈥� Dulis wrote on that day.
鈥淕reat 鈥� thanks! I鈥檝e made the edit in [WordPress],鈥� Hahn replied.
Around the same time, Hahn and other Breitbart staff members coordinated to promote a campaign video of Nehlen鈥檚 that focused on . Nehlen鈥檚 campaign forwarded Breitbart News an advance copy of the ad, roughly one week before it was about to run.
鈥淧aul, Can you communicate with Julia [Hahn] on this stuff? We want to move on it today 鈥� the stuff on the border patrol purchase and the footage,鈥� Breitbart News editor Matthew Boyle replied on June 7, 2016.
On June 13, 2016, Boyle jumped back into the email, adding McHugh to the thread.
鈥淥K,鈥� Boyle wrote. 鈥淛ulia can you grab [this story] really quick when you鈥檙e done w [T]rump.鈥�
Nehlen gained only 15% of the vote in August 2016 despite the coverage given to him in Breitbart News, but used his profile to steer his fans on social media toward increasingly extreme ideas. Fourteen months after Hahn wrote her last story about Nehlen, he appeared on the white nationalist podcast 鈥淔ash the Nation,鈥� and then publicly endorsed the work of antisemitic white nationalist academic Kevin MacDonald. In 2019, Nehlen openly praised mass murder as a response to non-white immigration and heralded terrorists such as Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof and Brenton Tarrant as 鈥渟aints.鈥�
Relationship to Stephen Miller
In September 2015, Stephen Miller pushed for McHugh to write about the racist French novel 鈥淭he Camp of the Saints,鈥� as Hatewatch previously reported. It was ultimately Julia Hahn who of the story Miller pitched to the website. Distributed in the U.S. by The Social Contract Press, and promoted by VDARE, 鈥淭he Camp of the Saints鈥� describes Indian refugees as 鈥渋nvaders,鈥� to use Hahn鈥檚 descriptor in her write-up, led by a man who eats feces as food. In one particularly brutal scene late in the book, Indian men gang rape a white woman named Lydie and then leave her to die.
McHugh told Hatewatch that Miller鈥檚 connection to Hahn was personal in nature and transcended their shared views over immigration policy. The emails appear to show Hahn pushing for McHugh to publish favorable material about Miller on multiple occasions. One example of this is a Nov. 16, 2016, email with the subject line, 鈥渉ey! I spoke to Matt,鈥� referring to Breitbart News editor Matthew Boyle.
鈥淎wesome. Just cc Matt,鈥� Hahn wrote in helping to piece together a story about Miller. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to include quote from [T]ucker saying Stephen is smartest guy he鈥檚 met. Plus ingrahams quote about how he鈥檚 brilliant and is only 30.鈥�
McHugh also told Hatewatch that in February 2017, Hahn called her from the White House telling her to write a story defending Miller from criticism he received in . Hahn urged McHugh to round up quotes from popular right-wing voices defending or celebrating Miller. The list of people who contributed praise of Miller included Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity. Hahn鈥檚 push culminated in the Feb. 12, 2017, Breitbart News story 鈥�.鈥�
Evidence of the exchange can be found in the emails. McHugh sent a link to that article to Hahn鈥檚 Gmail account at 9:22 p.m. that night without a subject line, the emails show. Hahn replied twelve minutes later.
鈥淎mazing,鈥� she wrote back. 鈥淭hanks so much.鈥�
Photo illustration by 人兽性交
