Documents presented as evidence in a lawsuit against the Trump administration appear to support allegations that officials handed over leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to an outside contractor who is currently the subject of multiple ethics investigations.
Plaintiffs challenging various White House moves to shrink the federal government obtained undated messages between Department of Homeland Security contractor Kara Voorhees and FEMA Chief of Staff Karen Evans. Voorhees has previously been accused of acting as an informal superior to Evans, a cybersecurity expert who has also served as acting head of FEMA since December. Federal regulations generally prevent contractors from performing inherently government functions, such as making policy decisions, awarding contracts, or directing federal personnel.
In one exchange, Voorhees instructed Evans to “make a data call to find out how many contractors work at FEMA” in the name of restructuring the agency, and instructed the agency leader on how he should obtain the data.
According to the documents, Evans responded, “How do you want the data? On site? Off site? Please provide details.”
In another exchange, Voorhees reacted angrily after receiving a link dated January 23. CNN article reporting FEMA had halted the termination amid a major winter storm, prompting Evans and others in a group chat to ask “why exactly” this information was made public.
In a statement presented in the case, Evans also said that after FEMA leadership made the decision, he and other FEMA leaders went to Voorhees for final approval.
The messages and statements provide concrete examples of the amount of weight Voorhies, whose contract has expired, carried at the agency under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It also signals that Secretary Markway Mullin may need to correct violations in FEMA’s operations that occurred under his predecessor.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case — which include the nation’s largest unions, the governments of San Francisco, Baltimore and Chicago, as well as several nonprofit groups — also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senior FEMA officials and lawmakers have alleged that Voorhees secretly served as head of the agency despite lacking relevant experience and bypassing the normal vetting, nomination and confirmation process for high-level officials. A “current senior official” in DHS. Voorhees described As “shadow administrator” for CNN in March, A nickname also used by lawmakers.
are republican lawmakers Currently under investigation DHS has investigated how it handled contracting matters in recent months and Voorhies’ role in those decisions.
Sen Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has accused the administration of handing over leadership at FEMA to a former contractor.
“I have reason to believe that DHS has handed over the responsibilities of the FEMA Administrator to an outside contractor. Who is Kara Voorhees? What is her official role at DHS?”. Tillis asked during a speech on the Senate floor last month.
In a statement in the court case, Evans described Voorhees as a “senior advisor to the Secretary on FEMA” and said Voorhees was given an official FEMA email address.
Evans claimed that he ensured that Voorhees was not involved in FEMA personnel matters and asserted that he sought “clear delineation between DHS headquarters and FEMA.” Nevertheless, Evans acknowledged in his deposition that he copied Voorhees on emails about FEMA staffing and talked to Voorhees about whether to extend contracts for the agency’s cadre of on-call response/recovery workers, who provide direct assistance to victims of natural disasters and other emergencies.
La’Toya Prieur, FEMA’s chief human resources officer, acknowledged the confusion about Voorhees’s role at FEMA in a separate statement, saying it risked violating federal employees’ privacy rights under the Privacy Act of 1974. Contractors are not supposed to have access to personal identifying information about federal employees, and Preuer indicated that such information may have been included in the data given to him by Evans.
FEMA has been without a full-time administrator since the Trump administration takes office in 2025. A rotating team of officials have taken turns serving as acting administrator, leading to bipartisan criticism that the agency is without leadership when managing federal responses to recent major disasters such as massive wildfires in California and winter storms across the country.
Voorhees teamed up with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and Noem’s informal advisor. The Washington Post previously reported Agency investigators removed documents and equipment from Voorhies’ office last month as part of an ongoing investigation into contracts issued during Noem’s tenure.
The statements also confirmed that Lewandowski and Joseph Guy, the deputy chief of staff under Noem, were involved in talks about reestablishing FEMA.
Lewandowski’s role in the contract approval process has also drawn bipartisan scrutiny over allegations that contracts were being awarded to Noem’s political allies.
