In recent weeks, the Department of Internal Security (DHS) has submitted about 50 employees, including the interim FEMA administrator and about 12 assistance agency employees, lies detector tests, as part of an increasing effort to eliminate what the department claims to be national security information escapes.
FEMA interim administrator Cameron Hamilton, appointed by President Donald Trump, was submitted to a polygraph a few days after attending a meeting with high DHS officials for a political discussion about FEMA’s future and the way of potentially dismantling the agency in the coming months. This meeting at the closed door was reported by CNN and other media.
At least one FEMA employee was placed on administrative license and was escorted out of the agency’s office this week after undergoing a polygraph test, according to several sources with knowledge on the subject.
“We are agnostic regarding your position, mandate, political appointment or status of a career civil servant-we will locate the authors of information escapes and process them to the full length of the law,” DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said in an email sent to CNN.
DHS investigations have raised concerns that lies detector tests can be used in federal employees accused of disseminating unmistes information to the media, particularly in FEMA, where sources say classified information is treated in very limited circumstances. Reporting organizations tell CNN that it would be unusual, alarming, and potentially illegal that the tests were used in such cases.
A Fema employee, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, revealed that “they are pursuing ordinary employees and instilling this culture of fear.”
Trump administration, including DHS and the Department of Defense, has launched several investigations involving the use of polygraphs on unauthorized disclosures of confidential and national security information.
Some FEMA employees “failed” the test, McLaughlin said, refusing to provide details about what information was allegedly escaped. And he insisted that DHS is complying with the law.
“We will take all the appropriate measures and, in some cases, we will forward some to criminal proceedings based on additional evidence,” added McLaughlin in a written response sent to CNN.
McLaughlin said Hamilton’s polygraph raised him. Hamilton continues in his position. CNN contacted it to comment on the matter.
The FEMA employee told CNN that the idea that DHS is only testing workers accused of confidential information escape is “extremely false”, based on the knowledge of some of the people who have been subjected to the tests and the positions they occupy.
“They are just covering up the unpopular things they are doing,” said the official. “Fema is a classified information consumer, not a classified information producer, and the FEMA programs that are truly classified are all an extremely small group of people.”
A second Fema employee called the tests “a witch hunt.”
“I find it very, very difficult to believe that, in the normal course of the activity, some of these employees have moved in classified material,” said the official. “They are trying to incite fear. They are trying to get rid of people.”
Tom Devine, legal director of the accounting accountability project, a non -profit, non -profit organization of supporters, said he was surprised by the number of polygraphs administered only in the first three months of the Trump administration.
“For decades, government agencies have resorted to lies detectors to catch the informators or anyone who consider evildoers. The difference here is the volume,” Devine points out. “What used to be a sensitive, carefully considered and high -risk decision is now an automatic reaction, and that’s what is scary.”
As experts have questioned the validity of polygraphs as they are subject to coercion and may not be reliable and are often inadmissible in court.
The tests have as its backdrop the growing tension between FEMA’s workforce and the internal security department, which oversees the catastrophe help agency. Trump and his allies have criticized Fema for months, claiming that the agency has been a party, ineffective and unnecessary. Internal Security Secretary Kristi Noem has promised to “eliminate the fema.”
Noem, DHS, and Doge’s effort led by Elon Musk are trying to make potentially important cuts in Fema. Last week, FEMA employees received proposals for voluntary terminations and early renovations.
Several FEMA employees have revealed to CNN to expect these proposals to have a mass exodus of the rescue organization in case of catastrophe, at a time of growing tension, that some fear that they have an impact on the agency’s response capacity to storm during the hurricane season.
“Many employees are considering or accepting [ofertas de rescisão voluntária]”A FEMA employee said.” There is a possibility that much of the institutional knowledge leaves door and then there is a double blow if there is not enough labor to fulfill the mission, even if it is a normal time of hurricanes. “
CNN previously reported that agitation in FEMA is already affecting the agency’s preparations for the hurricanes. The FEMA employee warns that response teams and resources may be insufficient if the US faces a time of storms like last year’s, where helene and Milton hurricanes have plagued the Southeast.
