A former official to Kristi Noem who deliberately destroyed court evidence has been handed an extraordinary new assignment—fighting fraud at the Department of Homeland Security.
The Daily Beast’s sister investigation Substack, PunchUp, revealed last week that Karen Evans was found to have deleted work-related correspondence she had been told to preserve for a federal lawsuit over the Trump administration’s efforts to gut FEMA.
In her explosive finding, Judge Susan Illston said Evans, Noem’s acting FEMA chief, intentionally changed the settings on the messaging app Signal to make correspondence with senior DHS aides disappear. These included groups featuring Noem, 54, and her corruption-accused chief aide and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52.
After Donald Trump, 80, fired Noem in March, Evans was dumped as FEMA’s acting administrator after less than six months in the role. But rather than following her boss out of the door, she was made the department’s director of the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Task Force—three weeks before the court found her to have deleted evidence, PunchUp reports.
A beleaguered department insider told the outlet: “That sounds pretty appropriate for this admin.”
Evans’s actions have brought grave consequences for the Trump administration. The ruling by Illston, a Clinton appointee, means the court will now assume the missing messages would have helped prove that DHS directed and carried out the plan to slash FEMA staffing.
However, she returned to DHS headquarters 15 days before Illston issued her damning September 11 ruling to lead the department’s role in Trump’s government-wide Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
In an August 27 announcement to staff, DHS undersecretary for management Brian Cavanaugh praised Evans’s credentials. He wrote that “Karen’s extensive background in federal IT and cybersecurity leadership, along with her deep experience in public service” made her suited to the assignment.
He said Evans—who had already earned the nickname “The Terminator” among FEMA staff over her aggressive cost-cutting while running the disaster agency—would safeguard taxpayer funds and ensure DHS acted as a responsible steward of public money.
But as PunchUp notes, Judge Illston’s ruling raises questions about why Evans still runs a task force dedicated to rooting out fraud after the finding, and what Cavanaugh and the department knew when she was rehired.
DHS was asked whether Evans has faced any disciplinary measures over the destruction of government records, and if it still considers Evans an appropriate official to lead its efforts to combat fraud. Declining to comment on whether Evans had faced sanctions, the department said it was grateful for her service and work at DHS.
A spokesperson said the department “strongly” disagreed with the judge’s characterization of Evans’s actions, adding it did not believe the ruling accounted for the information presented to the court. “Ms. Evans produced pages and pages of records and made every effort, above and beyond, to comply with the court and the Department of Justice,” they said.
DHS was also asked whether the department and Cavanaugh knew about the Signal evidence dispute when he announced her return. The department declined to say what Cavanaugh knew and when, saying only that he had not been involved in the events addressed in the order, and that it would not comment on privileged legal communications.
Evans was asked, via DHS, if she wished to comment. It did not immediately respond.
While running FEMA, Evans was firmly inside Noem’s powerful inner circle, and communicated about government business over Signal with Noem, Lewandowski, and their ally, contractor Kara Voorhies.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that investigators had found evidence Lewandowski may have been involved in improperly awarding DHS contracts. The newspaper then alleged earlier this month that he also pursued private deals with foreign governments while wielding sweeping influence inside the department. Lewandowski has denied wrongdoing.
The Journal reported in March that investigators have also examined Voorhies’s role in FEMA contracting.
PunchUp revealed in July that Guy wiped at least 26 FEMA-related Signal chats on his final day in government. Sources said the chats’ participants included Noem and Lewandowski.
Guy’s lawyers said the messages were lost accidentally when he reinstalled Signal. Illston said the timing had been “highly suspect,” though she stopped short of finding deliberate destruction.
Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.
