Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Trump officials caught 'intentionally destroying' evidence during court battle

alternet.org · 15h · first reportShare

Former officials in President Donald Trump's administration have been caught by the court deleting messages and potentially relevant evidence despite ongoing court cases and an order to retain documents. Daily Beast correspondent Tom Latchem noticed the filing that popped up on Sept. 11 , showing that at least two former Homeland Security officials deleted information. Former Secretary Kristi Noem's top staffer, Karen Evans, served as "one of the ousted Department of Homeland Security chief’s most trusted aides," the report claimed. After she was told to retain information, including Signal chats, she "intentionally destroyed" those messages. Judge Susan Illston wrote in a court filing that Evans, a former acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) leader, acted with “intent to deprive” plaintiffs of the information requested in the case. "Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e)(2), plaintiffs are therefore entitled to a presumption that the information lost was unfavorable