A Department of Homeland Security staffer who invertedly added a journalist to an email thread about an impending operation was placed on leave, sources say.
Former ICE Chief of Staff Jason Houser told NBC News that the longtime federal employee, whose identity remains anonymous, told colleagues she mistakenly included the reporter in a message about unclassified plans regarding an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Denver in late January.
A former and a current DHS official, who both spoke on the condition of anonymity, also confirmed the story to the network.
The recipient, a reporter at a conservative Washington-based publication, agreed not to disclose the information, the sources said. While the information was not classified, officials specified the sensitive nature of the email because it included the time of the operation and the location of targets.
The DHS staffer was placed on administrative leave, according to the report.
This is in contrast to White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz who has so far not faced major repercussions for adding The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group where top officials discussed impending strikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen earlier this month.
The agency is also planning to revoke her security clearance.
After being placed on leave, the employee was asked to take a polygraph test and hand in her cell phone, which she declined, sources say. One person familiar with the matter said the DHS employee had 30 days to appeal the decision.
A senior DHS spokesperson confirmed that the employee was placed on administrative leave and told The Independent that it did so to ensure officer safety, citing an alleged uptick in violence against ICE personnel.
“If a DHS employee gives unauthorized information on an ICE operation as our officers face a 320 percent increase in violence against them, we will take appropriate personnel action to keep our officers safe,” they said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has rushed to support Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who Golberg revealed in his explosive report Monday sent the highly sensitive attack plans in the Signal chat—and dismissed the incident as “a witch hunt.”
The White House denied that any classified information was sent in the Signal group, prompting Goldberg to release the full chat, detailing specific timelines of the strikes, hours before they occurred.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly attempted to smear the The Atlantic editor before the president attempted to distance himself from Signalgate claiming: “I wasn’t involved in it. I wasn’t there.”
Houser, the former ICE chief of staff, claimed that the Trump administration “punishes integrity and protects recklessness.”
“That doesn’t just betray her, it weakens every public servant who risks their career to do the right thing,” he added.
Experts say the DHS staffer’s case raises questions about the unequal punishment for inadvertent leakers of government information.
Mary McCord, a former top official in the Justice Department’s national security division, told NBC News that the Signal security breach should be treated as seriously as the ICE operation email lapse.
“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,” she said. “We should expect the Signal chat breach to be taken at least as seriously as the DHS employee’s breach.”
