It turns out there are consequences for mistakenly leaking information about sensitive government operations to journalists.
A longtime Department of Homeland Security employee was placed on administrative leave after accidentally sending unclassified details of an immigration operation to a journalist in late January, according to current and former DHS officials who spoke to NBC News. The staffer was also reportedly told last week that the agency plans to revoke her security clearance.
The DHS employee, who declined to speak to NBC, told colleagues that she mistakenly added a reporter from a conservative media outlet to an email thread detailing information about a forthcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Denver.
DHS officials said the information in the email was not classified but considered law enforcement sensitive because it included details about when the operation was going to take place and possible locations of targets.
When the employee realized her mistake, she called the reporter, who agreed not to disclose the information, officials said. The ICE operation was carried out without a hitch.
But it was too late. Another person on the email thread flagged the error to DHS leadership just as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was making employees take lie detector tests to weed out leakers. Border czar Tom Homan earlier blamed media leaks for fewer-than-expected arrests in an operation targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The DHS employee was placed on leave pending an investigation and asked to take a polygraph test, officials said. She was reportedly notified that the agency intended to revoke her security clearance, which could lock her out of future homeland security jobs. She has 30 days to appeal.
It’s a far cry from the Trump administration’s response to a massive intelligence leak involving top national security officials who were discussing a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen without knowing that The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg got inadvertently added to the group chat.
None of the officials in the group chat—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Vice President JD Vance—have faced repercussions over the leak. President Donald Trump has assigned Waltz to probe his own mistake of adding Goldberg to the group chat.
Former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser told NBC that the DHS employee was known for being “mission-focused” and “apolitical.” He called it a “staggering hypocrisy” that national security officials did not face the same consequences.
“Targeting a career official who dedicated her service to protecting public safety and enforcing the law while excusing political appointees who leaked sensitive war plans shows this administration punishes integrity and protects recklessness,” he said. “This isn’t just a double standard—it’s reckless and dangerous.”
Mary McCord, a national security analyst who used to work in the Justice Department, told NBC that the DHS and group chat incidents should be handled the same way.