The Department of Homeland Security is walking back earlier claims that it could no longer access or retain text messages from Secretary Kristi Noem and other senior officials, saying a “misunderstanding” caused by technology changes led to the confusion.
The admission came Wednesday in a court filing responding to a lawsuit by the watchdog group American Oversight, which accused DHS of violating federal law by failing to preserve key electronic records. The group’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed in October, alleged that DHS had admitted it no longer maintained text message data generated after April 9, 2025 — a statement that, if true, would have been a clear violation of the Federal Records Act.
In a sworn declaration, DHS Chief Data Officer Michael Weissman said that “technology changes” in the department’s data management systems had led to “erroneous information” being provided to the public and to American Oversight. “The way technology is used by DHS to preserve federal records, including electronic messages, has changed,” Weissman said. “This led to the misunderstanding about how the Department preserves electronic messages and the erroneous information provided to Plaintiffs.”
According to Weissman’s statement, the department’s previous message-archiving software, TeleMessage, was discontinued in April following cybersecurity failures. That forced DHS employees to begin manually archiving text messages — either by taking screenshots and saving them to shared folders, or, for senior officials like Secretary Noem, by having technicians use forensic tools to copy entire devices. Weissman emphasized that an internal review found “no evidence that any records have been destroyed.”
Still, the department acknowledged that the manual system is far from ideal. A “litigation hold” has been issued to preserve all relevant records, and Weissman said DHS is seeking “new, secure, technical solutions” to restore automatic archiving. “DHS policies have never authorized employees to destroy records,” he said.
American Oversight called the admission a partial victory but said the agency still hasn’t demonstrated compliance with the law. “DHS has now admitted that it provided inaccurate information about whether Secretary Noem’s and other top officials’ text messages were properly preserved,” said Chioma Chukwu, the group’s executive director. “We’re talking about messages exchanged amid major national controversies — from military deployments to immigration crackdowns. The public deserves to know whether these records still exist.”
Chukwu said the group remains skeptical that DHS is being fully transparent. “After misleading us for months, DHS wants us to trust that the law is being followed,” she said. “But the agency has not turned over the records we requested nor provided details about how officials’ messages have been preserved. It’s time for transparency — not more empty assurances.”
