Posted on 02/27/2026 10:55:58 AM PST by MtnClimber
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that members of her own department secretly installed spyware on government-issued devices used by Trump administration officials, including her phone and laptop, allowing staffers to record meetings and monitor internal communications.
Noem said on “PBD Podcast” that tech experts, including Elon Musk and members of his team, helped her uncover what she described as unauthorized surveillance software embedded on devices assigned to political appointees. Noem said the discovery came after outside technology specialists examined DHS hardware and flagged suspicious software activity.
“I can’t believe what I found since I’ve been in this department. 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. So we just happened to have an employee walk by a door and wonder what it was and started asking questions,” 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 like that, and now I’ve got that turned over to attorneys, and we’re getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there.”
When asked for additional details to support Noem’s allegations, a DHS spokesperson declined to elaborate, saying, “We will let the Secretary’s post speak for itself.” Noem reiterated in a post on X that DHS staff had installed surveillance software on devices used by her and other political appointees and that officials discovered secure rooms containing hidden files that were later turned over to attorneys.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The secretary said Customs and Border Protection maintains extensive records that she has begun reviewing alongside information from national laboratories under her jurisdiction.
“We have CBP which is Customs and Border Protection. They know every traveler that comes into this country, every good that comes in, they’re the ones who assess and collect all of the tariffs, but the information that they had on travelers that came in during COVID, what are national labs, which I also have national labs under my jurisdiction,” Noem added. “They’re scientists that participated with that Wuhan lab, how they were traveling back and forth between each other and working on those experiments. It’s been eye-opening, and I’ll tell you, Patrick, even from the time I came into this office it was, Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me. They helped me identify that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me to record our meetings.”
Noem said several political officials had similar surveillance software installed on their government-issued devices and that the activity might have continued without outside intervention.
“They had done that to several of the politicals, and so we ended up bringing in people and that was something that 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. So one of the things I need to do and continue to do is partner with technology companies and experts to bring them in and help us because many times in government and especially in this department, which was extremely neglected, we were just behind and not up to the standard we should be at. I remember the first four months I couldn’t even send a PowerPoint over email from the Department of Homeland Security servers that was longer than six pages long.”
Noem said the department’s prior approach to security was deeply flawed and that the problem extends beyond DHS.
“So the backwards thinking of protecting our country was extremely detrimental to keeping us safe, and many times the deep state. What I tell people most of the time is I always believed when people talked about the deep state before, that it existed,” Noem said. “I never would have dreamed that it was as bad as it is.”
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Rip it out by the roots and burn it.
I wonder if they will find that COVID was intentionally created to be released on society.
No surprises on this op. Likely widespread beyond just this dept, too.
What Noem is up against is daunting.
The Deep State is - well, DEEP.
For my money, Noem is one of the bright ones and DHS is young enough that cleaning house might be possible.
I truly hope that they are being strategic about this.
Discover it.
Tell a very small group of trusted people.
Keep it quiet, let it keep running while under intense and covert scrutiny.
Trace it to the players.
Trace them to the source.
Arrange all of the pieces on the board for the kill.
Nail them all at once.
Why is she so dumb?
They are trying to paint her as a nutcase, but I believe her. The deep sate is stage 4 cancer.
My thoughts too. Put in your own spyware to track where this information goes.
Just imagine what’s going on inside the CIA.
I hope they traced where all of this information was distributed before releasing the news. I am sure there were CIA operatives on the deep state distribution list.
They should be SHOT
“the department’s prior approach to security”
UH! Security is in the name of the Department.
Maybe the critics of Bush were right. Maybe a whole new cabinet level bureaucracy should not be created to increase the number of idiots in the swamp.
From telephone poles.
Yes, but will any of them be prosecuted or just lose their jobs once they are exposed?
why don’t all of the departments go in and open every door that is in their building? Didn’t the FBI also find a room that no one knew about with burn bags etc. in the hidden room
Hey Kristi- Let me know when someone is on their way to prison for doing this.
Arrests?
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