Seen, Heard & Whispered: Nicki Minaj at WHCD, plus a fraud probe and the AI race

Nicki Minaj to attend White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Self-proclaimed No. 1 Trump fan Nicki Minaj plans to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner on Saturday, Seen, Heard & Whispered has learned.

Details were still being worked out, but Fox News confirmed that the rap artist will be coming as its guest to the gala at the Washington Hilton.

Ms. Minaj has forged a unique relationship with President Trump, who himself will be making his first appearance at the dinner as commander in chief. He declined invitations in his first term and again last year.

The dinner, known in some quarters as “Nerd Prom,” gives the D.C. news media a chance to party en masse, dole out some awards and scholarships, and attempt a poor imitation of Hollywood for a night.

Mentalist Oz Pearlman will be the featured entertainer, and the president traditionally tries his own comedic routine.

In decades past, the event drew big stars, with the TV network news divisions inviting some of their own actors from sitcoms and drama series. The star power has dimmed mightily since the end of the Obama administration.

2020 election fraud evidence to be part of Florida conspiracy case

FBI Director Kash Patel hinted at evidence that backs up President Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election — but quickly backed off revealing what he knows.

Seen, Heard & Whispered is told that what Mr. Patel knows is likely to come to light as part of a broad federal investigation, based in Florida, that seeks to get to the bottom of a decade-old “grand conspiracy” to stop Mr. Trump.

“It seems like it’s all being rolled into the Florida case,” our source said.

That probe is quickly gaining steam.

Joe diGenova, a Trump ally, was just named counselor to the attorney general and was assigned to help the U.S. attorney’s office in southern Florida pursue the grand conspiracy investigation.

Mr. diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for Washington in the Reagan administration, blasted former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe in the president’s first term. A grand jury has been seated since last year to pursue the matter.

Mr. Trump has long believed in a wall of resistance that worked against him, beginning with what he said was fraud that denied him the popular vote victory in 2016, pursued him with ill-founded theories of “collusion” with Russia during his first term, and then denied him reelection in the 2020 contest.

The election fraud claims have been rejected by courts, and no firm evidence has been presented, though Mr. Patel said last weekend on “Fox News Sunday” that “information … backs President Trump’s claim.”

At a press conference on Tuesday, the FBI chief said, “We have many ongoing investigations into large-scale conspiracies. … We’ll be announcing those arrests when the grand jury returns those indictments.”

Although the statute of limitations for crimes in the 2016 and 2020 elections has likely expired, the belief is that any overt acts to further an anti-Trump conspiracy since then could reopen legal jeopardy for the two elections.

AI is the talk of this town

For Washington, much of the allure of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is all the action outside the ballroom — and fittingly for “Nerd Prom,” that means deep policy sessions timed to coincide with the big event.

Which is why a group of senators was at Butterworth’s, a Capitol Hill watering hole, to talk artificial intelligence Wednesday night at an event hosted by Townhall Media.

Republican Sens. Steve Daines, Bernie Moreno, Tim Sheehy and Cynthia Lummis were quizzed by CNN’s Scott Jennings about winning the AI race and data center issue.

The emerging consensus was that Washington needed to head off the states and shape a national policy that encourages development.

Mr. Moreno complained that Sen. Bernard Sanders wants to ban AI in America — likely a reference to the Vermont independent’s new legislation that would impose a moratorium on building new AI data centers.

“I don’t even think he knows what that means. That tells you there is a problem,” Mr. Moreno said. “The solution is we have to go on offense on communication.”

The Ohio senator said those who want to shepherd AI must tell positive stories about it, such as how it could improve wages or assist work-life balance.

Mr. Sheehy, Montana Republican, said Washington needs to occupy the field so states don’t make a mess of it.

“We have 50 states with inconsistent regulatory frameworks — especially as inconsistent if one state wants to make it completely illegal and one state wants to make it an AI-dominant state,” he said, adding that AI companies “are going to shift — the free market will follow the incentives to places that do want them there.”

Kenny Cunningham, with Cunningham Communications, organized the event and said the goal was to counter the fear coming out of Washington over AI.

“What Townhall Media put on stage last night was the opposite: four senators talking seriously about how America wins the AI race, keeps the industrial base strong and makes sure American workers come out ahead,” he said.

Some of the key influencers who attended the panel event included: Larry O’Connor, James Blair, Mike Davis, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, Rep. Barry Moore, Chris Plante, Sean Spicer, David Spady, Katie Pavlich, David Santrella and Jonathan Garthwaite.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, American Principles Project held a luncheon featuring Ryan Baasch, deputy assistant to the president on economic policy.

He said states should protect residents when it comes to AI, but the federal government should be the one to set standards and let technology “thrive.”

He said the White House is looking into concerns from families about how to protect children on the online front as well.

But he added there’s good in AI, especially when it comes to the workplace and output.

“AI is not inherently bad,” Mr. Baasch said.

Pro-family groups like APP are excited that the White House is pursuing age verification when it comes to AI chatbots to protect children.

• Seen, Heard & Whispered is a weekly column taking you inside the conversations happening in Washington’s power corridors, the moves being made and the whispers that explain what’s really going on in the nation’s capital. Email tips to whispered@washingtontimes.com. Click here to receive this in your inbox every Friday morning.