DHS to fire 12 CISA employees for allegedly policing 'misinformation' and pausing 'all election security activities' | Law Enforcement Today

WASHINGTON, D.C- An exclusive report from the New York Post states that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to fire 12 employees of a federal cyber security agency that allegedly policed "misinformation" while pausing "all elections security activities" pending further review of free-speech implications.

The group of workers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were previously placed on leave as President Trump's administration works to investigate and hold officials accountable if they regulated American' political commentary.

A senior DHS official said in a statement, "CISA has completed an initial review of its election security mission with a particular focus on work related to mis-, dis, and malinformation in accordance with Executive Order 14149, Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. The agency is taking appropriate actions regarding employees found to have participated in these activities."

Back in 2022, when Trump was a candidate, he vowed to ban federal officials from labeling political speech as misinformation and to "begin the process of identifying and firing every federal bureaucrat" who had done so in the past. The senior DHS official described the shakeup as "a critical part of a larger assessment of the election security work that the agency is undertaking to review all election security related funding, products, activities, and personnel."

The official added, "Effective immediately, CISA will strategically pause all elections security activities pending the results of this review." A 20-day assessment by DHS will conclude on March 6th on what to do with existing election initiatives, many of which are not widely known to the public. The DHS official said, "CISA has terminated federally funded activities supporting the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC)." 

The change will only impact federal funding and does not close the center itself. He added, "This does not impact the funding for the Multi-State Information and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). The agency has determined that federally funded work organized under the EI-ISAC no longer effectuates Department priorities."

For years, the CISA and Trump have had a contentious relationship, including back in 2020 when the then-45th president fired agency director Christopher Krebs for allegedly repeatedly dismissing his claims of widespread fraud in that year's election. Toward the end of Trump's first term and during the four-year Biden administration, the use of the terms "misinformation" and "disinformation" were used to pressure social media companies to censor information that later proved true. 

As noted by the Post, information previously censored online, though not necessarily at CISA's behest, included the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab that was doing risky US-funded research, a position that is now held by both the FBI and CIA, as well as documents from former first son Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop that linked former President Joe Biden to business deals in China and Ukraine.