Shortly after the November presidential election, Brent Efron matched on Tinder with a person named Brady. Both shared their disappointment over Donald Trump’s victory and agreed to meet for a drink.
At Licht Cafe, located in Washington’s U Street corridor, Efron and Brady exchanged small talk about their homes and hobbies. However, Brady repeatedly steered the conversation toward Efron’s role at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“It was a dull date,” Efron, 29, recalled. “He only wanted to discuss work.”
Brady showed particular interest in the billions of dollars Congress had allocated to the EPA to combat climate change. Efron explained how the Biden administration was trying to deploy these funds quickly after Trump had pledged to dismantle climate programs during his campaign.
A committed advocate for the EPA’s mission to “protect human health and the environment,” Efron used an analogy to describe the situation: the agency was like a cruise ship striking an iceberg, needing to launch lifeboats—climate and clean energy projects—immediately.
“It really feels like we’re on the Titanic, throwing gold bars overboard,” he told Brady.
After about an hour, Brady left, and Efron didn’t give the encounter much more thought—until a video of their conversation appeared on the website of Project Veritas, a right-wing group known for using undercover recordings to embarrass political adversaries. Brady, who posed as a liberal commercial real estate agent new to Washington, was in fact a Project Veritas operative with a hidden camera.
The phrase “gold bars” in particular haunted Efron after conservative media and Republican officials seized on it as supposed evidence of Biden administration mismanagement of funds.
Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, frequently referenced the video while attempting to cancel $20 billion in funding for projects such as electric vehicle charging stations in low-income communities and geothermal heating and cooling systems for subsidized housing.
Zeldin issued press releases with headlines like “Administrator Zeldin Ends Biden-Harris ‘Gold Bar’ Subsidies of $20 Billion” and “EPA Refers Biden’s ‘Gold Bar’ $20 Billion Mismanagement to Auditor General.”
“In my view, the entire plan is criminal,” Zeldin said on national television in February. “We found the gold bars. We want to get them back.”
This narrative persisted despite a Department of Justice investigation that found no evidence of criminal misconduct by Biden officials or grant recipients, and a federal judge ruling that Zeldin’s team failed to substantiate claims of mismanagement. Internal government attorneys acknowledged the allegations were unfounded.
For Efron, the unfortunate reality was that his offhand remark had been weaponized as a potent political tool against the EPA, and he continues to endure personal consequences. Since the Project Veritas video emerged—and especially after Zeldin posted it twice on his social media account in February, garnering nearly three million views—Efron has faced public shaming from high-profile figures, abusive anonymous calls, and even an FBI interview.
All stemming from an online date.
One recent Thursday, Efron described his harrowing experience over green tea at Three Fifty Bakery & Coffee Bar in Dupont Circle. Months after the video’s release, he remained pained and bewildered by how deeply it disrupted his life.
“I think about it every day,” he said, his voice trembling. “I go to bed thinking about it, I wake up thinking about it.”
He noted that the Project Veritas excerpt made it seem as if he had authority over the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which finances clean energy projects. In reality, he had no role in grant decisions; his job was to monitor EPA-funded projects to ensure compliance with wage laws and labor regulations.
Efron also emphasized that he was expressing what was widely understood in Washington: that Trump intended to dismantle climate programs and that the Biden administration was trying to preserve them.
“It has been used to justify actions I consider terrible—attempts to cancel grants and claw back funds—and I want to set the record straight,” he said. “I want people to understand what I meant. I would like Lee Zeldin to understand what I meant.”
Gold Bars and Lifeboats
Efron was feeling down after the presidential election when Brady swiped right on his Tinder profile. He was eager to meet someone who shared his political views. His profile didn’t mention his EPA employment but noted his work on climate policy, residence in Washington, and recent master’s degree from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.
In hindsight, Efron acknowledged anyone could have uncovered details of his federal middle-management role with a simple internet search. But when he matched with Brady, he never suspected he would be targeted.
Their exchange moved from Tinder messages to agreeing to meet at Licht Cafe on November 20. That evening, Efron had earlier attended a happy hour with colleagues where they expressed pride in the EPA’s climate achievements and concern about potential Trump reversals.
It was then Efron first thought of the Titanic analogy. He told coworkers that funding for clean energy projects supporting states, cities, Indigenous groups, and nonprofits was like gold bars loaded into lifeboats to salvage part of the Biden administration’s work.
“What I meant was that we were providing money to protect rural Washington from wildfire smoke, fund a health clinic in Georgia, support a community farm in Missouri, and help Indigenous communities sinking into the ocean in Alaska,” he said. “Those were lifeboats.”
Efron had a drink, but Brady abstained. After discussing climate change, Brady asked about Vice President Kamala Harris, but Efron had little to offer. Brady abruptly declared he had to leave.
Two weeks later, on December 2 at 3:07 p.m., Efron received an email stating, “Project Veritas intends to publish a video containing your comments to a Project Veritas journalist.” It included some of his quotes and invited him to respond by 8 p.m.
Familiar with Project Veritas, Efron felt panic and humiliation.
The EPA press office received an identical request for comment. Within minutes, Efron’s supervisor called, signaling he had been set up.
Though worried for Efron, his supervisor forwarded the video to the agency’s ethics office for review, which cleared Efron of any wrongdoing.
“This situation instead seems to be an unfortunate reminder about the social media bubble we now live in,” wrote Justina Fugh, EPA ethics office director, in an email to Efron. “Remember my team and I are here to provide ethical guidance when needed. Until then, hang in there, Brent.”
Efron tried to cope by confiding in close friends and family in Massachusetts for support. He tightened privacy settings on his social media accounts. But when a high-profile tech executive shared the video with 221 million followers, the backlash intensified. Strangers obtained his phone number—though he still doesn’t know how—and left voicemail messages filled with obscenities, calling him “scum” and “American traitor.”
“We want you to return the stolen tax money, you disgusting criminal,” one Instagram message read. “By the way, Trump is your president again.”
In January, a month after the video’s viral spread, Efron resigned from the EPA, hoping the worst was behind him.
A Federal Interview
“Great news! Our outstanding EPA team just located BILLIONS of dollars in ‘gold bars’ that the Biden administration threw overboard from the ‘Titanic,’” read a February post on Zeldin’s official social media account shortly after his confirmation as EPA administrator, reaching over 240,000 followers and retweeted 17,000 times.
This triggered another wave of insults, Efron said. By then, he had relaxed privacy settings on his LinkedIn profile to search for new employment. People found him there, some revealing their identities openly. Most attacks targeted Efron’s sexual identity.
“Any hope you had of infiltrating government with your tyrannical and sick LGBTQ agenda is now OVER,” one person wrote. “Time to bulk up that rainbow resume.”
Then came knocks on his door. On the morning of February 21, while still in bed, two EPA auditor general’s office representatives asked if they could enter to ask some questions.
“I asked, ‘Do I have to answer?’” Efron recalled. They said no and left business cards.
He spent the day looking for a lawyer. Mark Zaid, known for representing national security workers and litigating against Project Veritas, agreed to represent Efron pro bono.
On February 24, after returning from a run, Efron found more business cards at his door. This time an FBI agent had written on the back: “Please call me, I would like to talk with you.”
A few days later, at Zaid’s office, Efron was interviewed by two FBI agents, a U.S. attorney, and two EPA auditor general investigators on the phone.
“On one hand, I had nothing to hide and told them the truth, but I was very scared,” he said.
“This all arose because I said something that was taken out of context and misrepresented,” he added. “I was also afraid the same thing would happen again.”
Staged Surprise
The Project Veritas video involving Efron follows a familiar pattern. During the Biden administration, the group released a series of secretly recorded videos of mostly young federal workers, primarily men, casually complaining about dysfunctions within their agencies or policies they opposed.
Most recordings appear to have been made in bars or restaurants. In many, a male voice behind the hidden camera alternates between enthusiastic remarks (such as “Amazing!” when Efron mentioned climate work) and probing questions.
“Efron openly described his experience of ‘throwing gold bars off the Titanic’ at Biden’s EPA in his own words to our journalist,” Project Veritas said in a written statement. “If he disagrees with the Project Veritas story, he should reflect on his own words, as we published them as reportage.”
Zeldin’s office continues to assert that Efron’s “gold bars” comment was an admission of governmental irregularities.
“This video sparked public discourse about very real problems regarding how the Biden administration burned through tens of billions in tax dollars,” said spokesperson Molly Vaseliou. “The administrator maintains a zero-tolerance policy on waste and abuse.”
The EPA is currently facing legal challenges from groups awarded portions of the $20 billion in grants.
“It is critically important that the American people understand the Biden administration not only knew what it was doing was wrong but deliberately tried to push as much money out the door as possible before President Trump took office,” Vaseliou added.
However, outgoing administrations commonly use their final weeks to secure policies from reversal by incoming presidents. Biden officials said the EPA grants were approved by career staff using a complex scoring system to evaluate applications.
“The manual was followed with a high degree of diligence and integrity,” said John Podesta, who oversaw implementation of the 2022 climate law for the Biden administration.
Seeking a Fresh Start
Efron’s lease in Washington, D.C., recently expired, and he is staying with friends while deciding his next steps. He has yet to find new employment and believes potential employers fear becoming targets under the Trump administration.
Zaid noted that Efron has limited legal recourse against Project Veritas for disrupting his life. In Washington, D.C., it is legal for a person to record a conversation they are part of without the other party’s consent.
Efron has tentatively returned to dating apps but now carefully researches people and prefers meeting those with mutual friends.
He regrets the words he spoke in the Project Veritas video but refuses to apologize for expressing personal political views in what he thought was a private setting.
“I deeply regret that my words were twisted to be used against these programs as a sort of justification,” he said. “I regret not being more careful about who I was talking to, and I shouldn’t have spoken about work. But I also believe what I said was something I should have been allowed to say.”
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