Nearly four years before he became White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic operator, opened a consulting firm in Washington, DC. Now, social media users are using his name, Evergreen Consulting LLC, to forge a connection between Psaki and the Ever Given, a giant container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal in Egypt for almost a week. The ship operator, Evergreen Marine Corp. Taiwan Ltd., is an established listed company that has no ties to Psaki’s consulting firm that Reuters could find.
Photos of Psaki’s business registration with DC regulators floated around on social media to indicate a connection to the Ever Given. Although the photo is true, it is posted with misleading allegations.
The registration is visible here.
Followers of QAnon conspiracy theory first made unfounded claims linking the 400m (430-yard) ship to former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after it ran aground on the Suez Canal single track was six days for the end of March, blocking more than a hundred vessels. Social media users are now using the coincidence in the name of Psaki’s firm to refer to a link to the White House press secretary. Examples are here, here , here
“Well, well, Evergreen Consulting,” reads one report, in which a commentator says, “THE PLOT LOOKS THICK (sic).” Another one says, ‘Jen Psaki and Evergreen are good friends. ‘
When asked if Psaki’s firm has a relationship with Evergreen Marine Ltd. had either had an affair, and whether Psaki had ever done consultancy work on shipping where container ships or cargo containers were involved, a White House official said “no to both”.
After Psaki was the former White House communications director for former President Barack Obama, he moved into the private sector and formed Evergreen in 2017. She also worked for WestExec Advisors and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace before joining the transition team of Democrat Joe Biden after defeating former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in the November 2020 presidential election. She will be press secretary in 2021 ( here, here, here).
Ethical disclosures from the White House show that Psaki earned $ 580,000 from her private consulting firm, and that the company will “remain dormant” during its civil service and that “no business operations will take place.” Psaki also includes a list paid as a CNN contributor as well as a communications consultant for Lyft, Jeff Anderson and Associates, the Zero Abuse Project, Center for Humane Technology, AnyVision, Spirit of America, Jeff Zients, Demand Justice and Bryson Gillette (here, here, here).
The company has meanwhile submitted financial disclosures as a listed company. An overview of its quarterly consolidated financial reports going back to the first quarter of 2017 does not show Evergreen Consulting as a related party and does not disclose any transactions with Psaki’s firm (here).
VERDICT
Misleading. White House press secretary Jen Psaki founded Evergreen Consulting LLC in 2017, but the firm has no ties to Evergreen Marine Corp Ltd, the ship’s managers who blocked the Suez Canal.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.