The Department of Homeland Security made the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency submit to a lie detector test as part of their investigation into leaks out of the department, reported Politico on Friday.
Kristi Noem, the leader of the department, previously vowed criminal prosecution for the leaks and already threatened polygraph tests on other lower-level employees.
"The test was given to FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton after he met March 25 with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to President Donald Trump, those people said," reported Thomas Frank. "The test was given within two days of the meeting and cleared Hamilton."
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Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, told Politico in an emailed statement, “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security. We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment or status as a career civil servant — we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Trump administration was continually frustrated by leaks from within throughout the president's first term, and this term has started up in much the same way as Trump's officials move to purge the civil service and install loyalists at all levels of the federal government. Leaks are even coming from the U.S. attorney's offices, where Trump has installed loyalist acting prosecutors.
All of this comes as the Trump administration weighs unilaterally dissolving FEMA altogether. The nation's top disaster relief agency has become a scapegoat in recent months because of its program to shelter asylum seekers, even as a disproportionate amount of the agency's time and funding goes to states that voted for Trump.