WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is moving to fire 12 employees of a federal cybersecurity agency that policed “misinformation” while pausing “all elections security activities” pending further review of free-speech implications, The Post has learned.
The dozen staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) previously were placed on leave — as President Trump’s team works to make good on his campaign-trail vow to punish officials who regulated Americans’ political commentary.
“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,” a senior DHS official told The Post.
“The agency is taking appropriate actions regarding employees found to have participated in these activities.”
In December 2022, Trump as a candidate vowed a policy video 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.”
“Effective immediately, CISA will strategically pause all elections security activities pending the results of this review,” the official said.
CISA for years has had a contentious relationship with Trump — including in 2020, when the then-45th president fired agency director Christopher Krebs for 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 either later proved true, as well as theories that gained broad acceptance.
Information previously censored online, though not necessary 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.
A 20-day assessment by DHS will conclude on March 6 on what to do with existing election initiatives, many of which are not widely known to the public.
“CISA has terminated federally funded activities supporting the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC),” the DHS official said, noting that the change only impacts federal funding and doesn’t shutter the center itself.
“This does not impact the funding for the Multi-State Information and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC),” the official added.
“The agency has determined that federally funded work organized under the EI-ISAC no longer effectuates Department priorities.”
