While many in the mainstream political media world wring their hands over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s handling of classified information over a commercial messaging app Signal and the curious inclusion of The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg to a group chat, an NBC News report identifies a similar instance in which a career DHS staffer is facing severe punishment for accidentally adding a journalist to an email about ICE raids.
Julia Ainsley reports for NBC News:
It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)
But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has largely rallied around Waltz and Hegseth, with Trump on Wednesday calling it “all a witch hunt.”
Ainsley detailed her report during a Friday morning appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and further explained that the employee in question ‘Is someone who’s worked in the George W. Bush administration, all through the first Trump administration.’
“In the early days of this administration, [she] accidentally put the name of a reporter on an internal email,” she explained. “You know, sometimes you can populate when you’re typing up names to go on an email that had details of a Denver ICE raid. Remember the Denver ICE raids that were coming up.”
“We heard a lot of blame from Tom Homan and others that, oh, it was media leaks,” she said, adding, “What happened is this email accidentally went out to a reporter. The official called the reporter, said that was a mistake, you know, and the reporter agreed not to do anything. That was the end. ”
“Well, someone else copied on that email, told superiors, this career employee, was immediately put on administrative leave, pending investigation, asked to be polygraphed, asked to hand over her personal cell phone, and just in the last week has been told that her security clearance may be revoked, which would really keep her from working in this space for the rest of her career, even outside of government space for the Homeland Security,” Ainsley explained.
“So we have a real life example,” she continued. “First of all, that was law enforcement sensitive information, not classified. But a real-life example of exactly how this administration treats an inadvertent leak of information. And you can see the difference when it’s a career person and someone who most people would not know versus… versus someone like a Pete Hegseth or a Mike Waltz.”
“And I will say, you know, a lot of people would want this person’s name, but this is such a retaliatory environment we’re in that this person didn’t want to share their name. And by the way, did not speak to us about this story because it’s still very afraid to talk to the media. But there were enough colleagues around this person were able to get it. So I think this is the question now we’ve been looking for an example to be able to take to the White House, to others,” she concluded. “And we haven’t gotten a response yet to say, ‘What is your policy when something like this?’”
Watch above via MSNBC.
