Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dropped a bombshell Thursday, revealing that members of her own department secretly installed spyware on government-issued devices used by Trump administration officials.
During an appearance on the “PBD Podcast,” Noem explained that the unauthorized software was discovered on her personal work phone and laptop, as well as the devices of several other political appointees, allowing staffers to record private meetings and monitor internal communications.
According to Noem, the surveillance was only uncovered with the help of outside tech experts, including Elon Musk and his team. These specialists flagged suspicious activity after examining DHS hardware that had been assigned to the new leadership.
The Secretary warned that without this outside intervention, the monitoring likely would have continued indefinitely. She noted that the activity targeted multiple “politicals” within the building. “If you didn’t have those technology experts here in the department looking at all of our laptops and our phones and recognizing that kind of software, it would still be happening today,” she said.
Beyond the digital surveillance, Noem detailed a “secret” physical operation discovered by chance on the DHS campus. She described a hidden SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) filled with mystery files that was only found when a curious employee questioned a specific door.
“I just found the other day a whole room on this campus that was a secret skiff secure facility that had files nobody knew existed,” Noem said. “We went in there. There was individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about on some of these most controversial topics… I’ve got that turned over to attorneys, and we’re getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there.”