A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee was punished by the Trump administration for mistakenly adding a journalist to a group email.
In late January, the longtime DHS employee mistakenly added the journalist from a conservative media outlet to a group email. The email had unclassified details about an upcoming ICE operation including time and possible home locations where targets are, former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser and two other officials confirmed to NBC News.
The staffer was asked to take a polygraph test and surrender her personal cellphone, which she declined.
The DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance which could ruin her chances of getting future employment in homeland security, NBC reported.
The case is similar to the Signalgate debacle where Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz mistakenly added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal group chat where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed planned classified military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
But unlike the DHS staffer, Waltz and Hegseth are remaining in their jobs and has the support of the White House.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Donald Trump told NBC News’ Garrett Haake this week.
Experts say the cases should be handled the same way.
“Both of these are examples of carelessness in the handling of highly sensitive information, the disclosure of which could put U.S. government employees or military members in danger,” Mary McCord, a former top official in the Justice Department’s national security division said. “We should expect the Signal chat breach to be taken at least as seriously” as the DHS employee’s breach.
Houser told NBC that the DHS staffer has a reputation for being apolitical and her punishment shows the hypocrisy of the Trump administration.
“Targeting a career official who dedicated her service to protecting public safety and enforcing the law — while excusing political appointees who leaked sensitive war plans — shows this administration punishes integrity and protects recklessness,” he said. “That doesn’t just betray her, it weakens every public servant who risks their career to do the right thing. It’s staggering hypocrisy.”
Houser also noted that the career official was put on leave for sharing information that was not classified, “while political appointees leak classified war plans and face zero consequences. This isn’t just a double standard — it’s reckless and dangerous.”
Even though he sent planned launch times of F-18s and Tomahawks as well as when targets will be hit, both Hegseth and the White House insisted that no classified information was shared in the Signal chat.
But, a senior defense official told CNN that the plans would have been classified at the time of Hegseth’s text and that anyone in uniform would have been court martialed for doing what he did.
