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Thomas Frank reports for Politico that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subjected Cameron Hamilton, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to a polygraph “test” in connection with a leak investigation. In this instance, it appears that no information that could credibly be construed to be properly classified had in fact “leaked” or that any crime had been committed, but rather that accurate media reporting on plans to radically shrink FEMA had embarrassed DHS Secretary Noem. Frank reports:
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was given a lie detector test by the Department of Homeland Security to determine if he leaked information about a recent private meeting concerning FEMA, two former senior FEMA officials told POLITICO’s E&E News.
The test was given to FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton after he met March 25 with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to President Donald Trump, those people said. The test was given within two days of the meeting and cleared Hamilton.
DHS acknowledged the test in an email.
“Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security. We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment or status as a career civil servant — we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin wrote.
At the March 25 meeting in DHS headquarters in Washington, Noem discussed dramatically shrinking FEMA and shifting disaster recovery efforts from the agency to states. Noem called the meeting one day after saying at a televised Cabinet meeting, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.”
E&E News and CNN disclosed the meeting March 26, and other media outlets followed their reporting.
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Read the rest of the article here.
There is no indication that presidential adviser Corey Lewandowski, who also attended the 25 March meeting, and with whom DHS Secretary Noem has allegedly conducted an extramarital affair, was polygraphed in connection with the leak investigation.
It is not surprising that Cameron Hamilton passed his polygraph examination, whether or not he was a source for any reporting on his meeting with Secretary Noem. First, polygraph “tests” are trivially easy to beat using simple and effective countermeasures that polygraph operators have no demonstrated ability detect. Second, any DHS polygrapher accusing a senior official like Hamilton of lying would come under considerable scrutiny and might face serious consequences if proven wrong. For the polygrapher, the safest option is to render an opinion of “no deception indicated.”
Since DHS Secretary Noem announced in February 2025 that polygraphs would be used in leak investigations, there is no indication that the polygraph has identified any leaker. This is hardly suprising. Polygraphy has no scientific basis, and to our knowledge, there is no documented instance of the polygraph ever solving a federal leak investigation.