Rebellion Defense—Rebellion Defense co-founders had conflicts of interest between Pentagon roles and founding defense AI startup
Rebellion Defense was founded in 2019 by Chris Lynch, Nicole Camarillo, and Oliver Lewis. Co-founder Nicole Camarillo co-founded Rebellion while still working at the Pentagon, with a pitch deck touting her 'present leadership role in U.S. Army Cyber Command.' Board member Eric Schmidt chaired the National Security Commission on AI (2016-2021) while personally investing over $2 billion in AI startups. Two Rebellion officials served on Biden's transition team, and the company hired White House tech director David Recordon as CTO. Ethics fellow Walter Shaub called Schmidt's dual role 'absolutely a conflict of interest.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revolving Door | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Undisclosed Conflicts | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.858 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
Forbes and Politico investigations documented Rebellion Defense revolving door between Pentagon and company
Investigative reporting revealed co-founder Nicole Camarillo co-founded Rebellion while at the Pentagon, Eric Schmidt chaired the National Security Commission on AI while investing $2B+ in AI startups, and two company officials served on Biden's transition team before the company received Pentagon contracts.