One of JD Vance’s key policy advisers, Aaron Kofsky, has for years posted extensively on Reddit about using a variety of drugs, including cocaine and opiates, under the username PsychoticMammal. In the posts, which are as recent as three months ago, Kofsky wrote about experiencing withdrawal from and trying to “kick” tianeptine—also known as “gas station heroin”—and kratom; advised other users on how to transport drugs on domestic flights; and called Vance “a Trump boot licker.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Kofsky, who is in his late twenties, has been advising Vance on financial policy since this past May, and has been working in the vice presidential nominee’s Senate office since March of last year. A recent Politico article on Vance’s “inner circle” described Kofsky as helping the senator “flesh out his opposition to some cryptocurrency regulation and his effort to introduce new banking regulations after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”
Before working for Vance, Kofsky worked for the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and as a policy adviser to Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mark Uyeda. The crypto industry has seen Vance as an ally since he ran for Senate in the 2022 election and then disclosed that he personally owned more than $100,000 in Bitcoin. Kofsky has criticized SEC chair Gary Gensler’s heavy-handed approach to crypto regulation multiple times on X. Over the summer, Vance circulated a draft bill that would remove much of the authority the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have over governing digital currency. At the time, Politico called the bill one of the more “industry-friendly” pieces of legislation.
A WIRED investigation shows Kofsky is also the person posting as PsychoticMammal. The account has posted personal details that precisely match Kofsky’s résumé, and has linked to a little-followed Instagram account dedicated to photos of Kofsky wearing preppy outfits. A review of publicly available material from data breaches provided by Constella Intelligence shows that Kofsky’s personal email address was used to set up a “PsychoMammal” account on a photography site. Furthermore, the PsychoticMammal name was used on Poshmark by a user whose avatar is a photo of Kofsky. It was also used on Tumblr by someone who linked to—and claimed as his own—a Blogspot maintained by a user named Aaron Kofsky, who posted personal details that match details of Kofsky’s biography.
The posts made by Kofsky stand in stark contrast to Vance’s own statements related to drug crime. Since being elected to the Senate in 2022, he has positioned himself as a leader in preventing fentanyl trafficking and, as recently as August, has said the Trump–Vance administration would support use of the death penalty as punishment against drug dealers. Vance, who has spoken at length about fentanyl trafficking, rose to prominence as the author of a book that discussed his mother’s drug addiction, which he referenced during his Republican National Convention speech this summer. He also argued that Democrats are letting drugs cross the border from Mexico.
After WIRED contacted Kofsky for comment, some of PsychoticMammal’s posts about drugs were deleted, and their Poshmark avatar was changed to a picture of characters from the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones. Parker Magid, a spokesperson for Vance’s Senate office, provided a statement from Kofsky.
“Like millions of Americans,” the statement reads, “I’ve struggled with drug use, which in my case was mostly an attempt to self medicate against the effects of epilepsy and epilepsy medication. I deeply regret posting these comments. I’m not proud of this and I’m embarrassed it’s being publicized in this way, but I am thankful to say that part of my life is behind me.”
For the past 11 years, PsychoticMammal has used Reddit to document their use of a variety of drugs including cocaine, tianeptine, kratom, oxycodone, Ritalin, and MDMA. In one post from eight years ago, they listed all of the drugs they had tried to that point, rating them on a scale of one to 10.
These drug-related posts have continued while Kofsky has been employed by the Senate. In May 2022, for example, PsychoticMammal responded to a post in the r/Cocaine subreddit, giving advice on how to smuggle drugs past airport security.
“Putting a bag in between pages of a book or in your wallet is also a safe bet,” they wrote. “TSA xray machines just show different types of material as different colors. What they’re looking for is metal. Since most book covers also have plastic in them, it’ll just all show up as the same color. I’ve never had an issue.”
In January, PsychoticMammal posted a video from a Senate committee hearing in which Vance questions a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent on the increasing use of nitazenes, or manufactured opioids; Kofsky appears in the background. They posted the video on several drug-related subreddits, including r/Opioid_RCs, r/Drugs, r/Opiates, and r/ObscureDrugs.
PsychoticMammal also posted it in r/ResearchChemicals, writing, “Surprising! Politician knows about nitazenes. Ohio Senator JD Vance Asks Witness About Nitzenes. Is it just me, or is this super surprisng? Like I’m just confused how this guy had heard of zenes? I can’t imagine any of his colleagues know anything about them.”
A different user commented on the post, pointing out Kofsky and writing, “that dude on the right behind him looks high on something lol.”
PsychoticMammal then agreed with the user, writing, “Haha I didn’t notice that guy before. His eyes are def buggin. Maybe snorted some ole white girl beforehand? I’m sure half of congress rails lines.”
Later on in the thread, a different user accused PsychoticMammal of being Vance because the linked video was unlisted. “Unlisted? 21 views? Senator Vance, is that you?”
“Lol I wish! Would love to be rolling in the dough like him and his VC buddies,” PsychoticMammal replied. “Honestly when I first watched this the thought kinda crossed my mind that maybe he’s familiar because he is a fan himself, but I feel like that’s doubtful given his politics. I’m sure there are a few congressmen who indulge, but I doubt they’re using zenes or other RCs [research chemicals]. Seems like a coke kinda job.”
In the comments of a now deleted post on r/ObscureDrugs, PsychoticMammal, responding to a user claiming that nitazenes are not obscure drugs, called Vance a “Trump boot licker.”
“I just can’t believe that this Trump boot licker Vance is ahead of the curve here,” the comments reads.
PsychoticMammal described numerous instances of drug use in posts dating from the time Kofsky worked for then senator Pat Toomey and Vance. “I love coke on its own, mixed with benzos, mixed with opiates (my fav tbh), and even love a line or two after smoking a few bowls. I’d even say that coke is my second favorite drug behind opiates,” they wrote earlier this year. In May of last year, they wrote about “my latest tianeptine binge which has skyrocketed my tolerance” and “hoping to finally kick Tia”—references to an unscheduled antidepressant that produces an effect similar to opioids and which is banned in 12 states and commonly sold at convenience stores. In May 2022, they wrote: “Coke then opiates is always my go-to. I only speedball if I have enough opiates to redose when I’m out of blow.”
PsychoticMammal has repeatedly posted about suffering from an addiction to tianeptine. In a post from last year titled “ODSMT for Tianeptine Withdrawals,” they wrote, “I’m trying to figure out what the tianeptine to ODSMT equivalent dose conversion is. I have a few grams of ODSMT coming in the mail and hoping to finally kick Tia using it.”
PsychoticMammal has also repeatedly referenced using kratom, a substance sourced from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree that mimics the effects of opioids and is often sold at corner stores and smoke shops. Two years ago, in response to a Reddit user who was seeking pain relief, they wrote: “I’ve dabbled in every drug you can think of—kratom is the one drug that really tripped me up and I found myself addicted to. Not sure what it was about it as it’s like a much milder opiate, but man that shit was hell for me to quit.”
WIRED’s investigation shows that Kofsky appears to be closely tied to the PsychoticMammal username across the internet. In 2013, for example, PsychoticMammal wrote that they were a ski instructor at the same resort, Boston Mills Brandywine Ski Resorts, that Kofsky lists as a past employer on his LinkedIn profile, and which he spoke about to Cleveland Magazine in a 2014 profile of notable area students. In another post from earlier this year, PsychoticMammal referred to the resort as their “home hill.”
In a separate post from November 2013, PsychoticMammal replied to a post about a St. Vincent–St. Mary High School football game, suggesting that they went to that school and correctly listing the final score of the game. Kofsky’s LinkedIn account lists the Akron, Ohio–based school as his former high school, and he is listed as a 2015 graduate in the school magazine.
PsychoticMammal also shared a link to an Instagram account that has posted photos of Kofsky. In a post to the r/RalphLauren subreddit six months ago, the PsychoticMammal account linked to @notyourmotherspreppy, a men’s style account that shows Kofsky wearing preppy outfits. “Anyone know what sweater this is?” the post says. The image of Kofsky used in the August Politico article also appears to be from this Instagram account. He is wearing the same vintage 1989 Ralph Lauren Country Patchwork Sweater on the Instagram account and the image used in Politico.
Before WIRED asked Kofsky for comment, a Poshmark account with the username PsychoticMammal started in 2018 used a photo of Kofsky as its avatar and listed the real name of the user as “Aaron K.” A Blogspot user named PsychoticMammal wrote about being Jewish and going to Catholic school—experiences that match Kofsky’s, according to the Cleveland Magazine article. And a VSCO account registered with Kofsky’s personal Gmail account, according to publicly available material from a data breach, also uses the name PsychoticMammal.
As recently as three months ago, PsychoticMammal posted to the r/7_hydroxymitragynine subreddit asking for help locating one of the compounds found in kratom in DC, Northern Virginia, or Maryland.
