Christina Pushaw

In 2008, Pushaw developed an interest in Georgia in the Transcaucasus, after hearing presidential candidate John McCain speak about it.[12] After graduating from USC, she lived in Tbilisi from October 2013 to June 2015.[1][8] In Tbilisi, she worked as a college admissions counselor and freelance journalist.[6] In August 2019, Pushaw established the New Leaders Initiative, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that hosted events for Georgians interested in "democracy and international affairs".[9][8]

From June 2017 to August 2019, Pushaw worked in Washington, D.C. for Stand Together, a philanthropic organization founded by Charles Koch.[12] At Stand Together, she claims to have worked on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the passing of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.[13]

From August 2019 to December 2020, Pushaw worked full-time for former Georgia president Mikheil Saakashvili, living in Tbilisi. She had worked for Saakashvili since January 2018, but was limited to part-time consulting on a "voluntary basis".[1][14] Pushaw first encountered Saakashvili while he was lecturing at the Reagan Library in California, where she was a volunteer.[6] Later, while doing graduate field research in Ukraine, she and her class had a meeting with Saakashvili.[6]

Pushaw assisted Saakashvili with improving his international profile and prepared him for a re-introduction into Georgian politics. This included outreach to Georgian, European Union, and U.S. media and politicians. She ghostwrote op-ed articles for Saakashvili that appeared in English-language publications.[15] All of Pushaw's work for Saakashvili had been terminated by December 2020.[16]

In February 2021, Pushaw published an article in Human Events criticizing Rebekah Jones, a Florida Department of Health employee who was fired in May 2020 for insubordination. Jones had been a vocal critic of the DeSantis administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her article was retweeted by DeSantis' lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nunez.[17][18] In March 2021, Pushaw wrote a letter to the governor's office asking for job on DeSantis' communication team. She was then hired as press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021. She worked in the position until August 2022, before leaving to join his campaign team as rapid response director.[19][18]

In September 2022, Pushaw gave a speech at the National Conservatism conference in Miami, Florida, titled "Defeating the Legacy Media’s Regime Narrative Enforcement".[20] Her boss, Ron DeSantis, was one of the keynote speakers at the event.

Pushaw was suspended by Twitter following her "tweeting" in 2021 concerning an Associated Press report. Pushaw recommended that followers "drag them" and as DeSantis' press secretary, said she would put the A.P. reporter "on blast." The A.P. said Pushaw had made "a direct effort to activate an online mob to attack a journalist." Pushaw said she believed she had not incited the violent threats made to the A.P. which followed her tweet.[21]

In June 2022, Pushaw retroactively registered as a foreign agent per the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), after the United States Department of Justice contacted her.[9] She hired former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin, to represent her for the FARA registration.[22] She was paid $25,000 over the course of two years for her work and lived rent-free, for six weeks, in a Tbilisi apartment owned by a Saakashvili associate.[23] In a November 2018 interview for Georgia Today, Pushaw claimed she was "not paid by anyone" for her support of Saakashvili.[24] According to her FARA filing, she received her first cash payment from Saakashvili in late October 2018.[23] Her filing described her arrangement with Saakashvili as "unwritten and informal".[15]