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.
“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,” Noem told host Patrick Bet-David. “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.”
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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.”
The Secretary also touched on her review of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) records and national laboratory data. She noted that these labs, which fall under her jurisdiction, employed scientists who reportedly traveled to and from the Wuhan lab to participate in experiments.
Noem characterized the department she inherited as “extremely neglected” and “backwards,” citing an inability to even email small PowerPoint files due to outdated servers. She framed the internal resistance and secret monitoring as proof that the “deep state” is more entrenched than she previously imagined.
“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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