A federal judge has ruled that a senior aide to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem deliberately destroyed messages in the middle of active litigation, marking the second time in months a top Noem official has been caught wiping communications tied to the disaster response agency.
According to Tom Latchem for PunchUp, Karen Evans, a former acting Federal Emergency Management Agency chief and one of Noem’s most trusted advisers, shortened the auto-delete timer on a Signal group chat called “FEMA 2.0” from four weeks down to just one. The change came in mid-March, right in the window after Trump had ousted Noem and after her team had already been formally told to hold onto relevant records.
U.S. District Judge Susan Ilston, a Clinton appointee, ruled the move went well beyond simple carelessness.
“The Court concludes that at least Evans deleted Signal chats with the intent to deprive plaintiffs of the use of the chats in this litigation,” Ilston wrote in her Sept. 11 ruling.
Ilston barred the Trump administration from presenting after-the-fact testimony denying its plan to gut FEMA’s staffing levels, and ruled that jurors should now presume the missing messages contained information unfavorable to the government. The underlying lawsuit, brought by federal employee unions, public-interest groups and local governments, challenges the administration’s sweeping FEMA workforce cuts.
This isn’t the first Signal-related scandal to hit Noem’s inner circle.
PunchUp reported in July that another senior aide, former DHS deputy chief of staff Joseph Guy, lost 26 FEMA-related Signal group chats involving roughly 20 participants, including Noem herself and her rumored romantic partner, Corey Lewandowski, right as he was leaving government. Guy’s attorneys maintained the loss was accidental, tied to reinstalling the app. Ilston called the timing “highly suspect” and found it implausible that Guy didn’t realize relevant messages remained on his device, but stopped short of finding he intentionally destroyed them, citing insufficient evidence of intent.
Ilston made no finding that Noem or Lewandowski personally destroyed evidence or knew Evans was doing so.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that investigators are examining whether he used his influence inside the department to pursue personal financial deals and steer federal contracting decisions involving Qatar, the UAE, and private prison operator GEO Group, with the DHS inspector general reportedly weighing a criminal referral. Separately, investigators have searched the office of FEMA contractor Kara Voorhies, who worked closely with Lewandowski, as part of a broader review of agency spending under Noem.
Lewandowski denies any wrongdoing and calls the allegations politically motivated. There’s no indication the destroyed Signal messages in Ilston’s ruling are connected to those separate financial allegations.
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