Well, we can’t say that Jessica Reed Kraus doesn’t keep us guessing. Is she a journalist? A blogger? A busy mom with a passion for negging women who accuse men of sexual abuse? Dedicated #spon poster for colostrum powder? A conservative PAC staffer, or—wait, was that a member of the White House press corps?
The identity that Kraus Inhabits seems to depends on the angle of the sun and whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is acknowledging her that day, but in a slew of Instagram Stories throughout the weekend, Kraus revealed that she’s heading to Idaho in August to “report” on the trial of Bryan Kohberger, who stands accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022, as only she can. (A judge entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf.) The trial begins in Moscow, Idaho, on August 11.
Kraus built her following on Instagram and then Substack through chronicling celebrity court cases like the defamation suits between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, which settled in 2022. More recently, she pivoted to politics, fixating on all things MAHA, and now she’s once again pirouetting back to celebrity, spitting out takes that evoke a sort of TMZ-meets-opium-den vibe. You never know what the takes will be, but you do know they’re going to be baffling.
In May, Kraus said on her Stories that she wasn’t covering the Diddy trial because she’d “rather be in unchecked corners where other media isn’t” and that she’s “always attracted to where media interest isn’t.” (She devoted multiple newsletters to covering the trial, while also whining via Stories that she was having a tough time because the music is so important to her.) Naturally, she’s already complaining about “how competitive it is already” among media who plan to cover the trial, based on a Zoom she sat in on in late May.
“Tensions flared over courtroom access and who should get what once the trial starts,” Kraus wrote in her newsletter (the “truly, the best eight dollars you can spend each month,” according to a Story she posted over the weekend) on May 29. “Someone from mainstream press argued that credentialed outlets deserved priority, implying that us ‘internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists’ shouldn’t be treated as equals. But the judge reiterated that access will be granted on a first-come, first-serve basis through reservations. I fear it’s going to be a full-fledged media circus on that lot come August.”
Ah, yes, the corners of a high-profile quadruple murder trial. So unchecked.
Her daily barrage of social media posts is an ever-rotating sampler platter of a very specific Weird Internet cuisine: Recently, she’s started reading the Bible, and has suggested that she start a “HIH Bible Study.” She spent a few days on a military boat during Fleet Week, where former press secretary Sean Spicer posted multiple photos of her just…horizontal on the deck. Chillin’.
Recently, there was a string of Instagram Stories about Joe Biden possibly being…a clone? And promises of a list of, let me just check my notes to make sure I have this right, yes, the “10 sexiest men in the 119th Congress.” She also recently shared photos of her husband installing a fully stocked bar, complete with uplighting, in her home office. (Remember when she was just so busy in the White House that she was considering renting out an apartment in the District?) So, like, kind of anyone’s call whether this hack of all trades will spud her way to the Gem State come August. Recently, she posted that readers had expressed interest in a broader variety of topics from her post-election, which sounds like she got called out for not actually knowing much about politics in the first place. (Remember when she eavesdropped on some guy on a bus talking about tariffs and then published a “tariffs for dummies” primer based on that? This is the authority we crave in the age of disinformation.)
To quote Kraus herself: More later.
