James O\u2019Keefe<\/a> and his company O\u2019Keefe Media Group (OMG), and steered the conversation towards the topic of politics and Noem.<\/p>\nAfter the recordings spread online, DHS first put Wright on administrative leave in January of 2025, then fired him about two weeks ago, on 8 January of this year.<\/p>\n
Wright alleges that by terminating him DHS violated his first amendment right to freedom of speech, which allows \u201cgovernment employees to speak on matters of public concern and to third parties without fear of retribution and retaliation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Wright\u2019s intended private expression of his personal opinions, especially during nonduty hours, is quintessential protected speech on a matter of public concern,\u201d the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, states. It argues that the government \u201cretaliated against Mr. Wright because of ordinary private speech and unlawfully removed him from federal service due solely to the expression of his Constitutionally protected freedom of speech\u201d.<\/p>\n
The suit was filed by the high-profile attorney Mark Zaid, who said the termination was an example of the Trump administration\u2019s push to extinguish any type of dissent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe First Amendment permits individuals to hold and express opinions that might be critical of the US Government, even when that individual might be a federal employee,\u201d Zaid said.<\/p>\n
DHS, Doe and Noem are all named as defendants in this suit. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Neither O\u2019Keefe nor OMG are being sued. O\u2019Keefe\u2019s attorneys in another civil suit did not immediately respond to request for comment, and O\u2019Keefe himself did not respond to several attempts to reach him.<\/p>\n
Wright was placed on administrative leave on 30 January 2025. DHS later proposed his removal for \u201cconduct unbecoming of a federal employee\u201d while referring to his off-duty remarks about Noem, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n
Wright alleges that a woman contacted him on Bumble in January 2025. The woman, who identified herself as Heidi, \u201copenly identified her political affiliation as a liberal supporting LGBTQ+ rights and feminism, and stated she was seeking both casual dates and potentially a long-term relationship\u201d, the suits says.<\/p>\n
They ultimately agreed to meet for a date, according to Wright. He picked a restaurant but claims that \u201cat the last minute\u201d she messaged him asking if they could go to a different eatery with which she was more familiar.<\/p>\n
While they discussed a variety of topics, Wright\u2019s suit alleges, the woman \u201ccontinually steered the conversation to politics\u201d. She remarked that she thought Noem was \u201ccrazy\u201d, and, Wright said in the suit, \u201che was glad she had read up on Defendant Secretary Noem and he agreed with her interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the date wrapped, the woman declined Wright\u2019s offer to drive her to the subway or home, he said.<\/p>\n
Wright said the woman texted after the date and suggested they go on another. Wright \u201cdid not feel there was a strong connection and he particularly had not liked Defendant Doe\u2019s repeated questions and efforts to talk about D.C. politics\u201d, and offered to be friends.<\/p>\n
Later that month, Wright started receiving \u201cthreatening\u201d voicemails from an unknown number, according to the suit. \u201cEach voicemail seemed to be the same person telling him, \u2018You\u2019re famous, buddy\u2019 and that he would soon lose his job,\u201d the suit states.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also received a text message from a number he did not recognize with a screenshot from Google Maps of his old home claiming that it was his, that the sender knew he was a DHS employee and a reference to a \u2018honeypot scheme,\u2019\u201d the complaint said. Wright said he reported this to his supervisor but did not hear back before disciplinary action was taken.<\/p>\n
Several days later, a video showing Wright talking to the woman was posted to various social media sites, including YouTube and X, interspersed with commentary from O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n
The 13-minute video \u201cpresents several clips that are repeated more than once and out of context\u201d and was recorded without his consent, Wright\u2019s suit states.<\/p>\n
The article posted alongside the video on OMG\u2019s site claimed that a DHS official was contacted for comment and that the agency replied: \u201cSecretary Noem has not seen the video in its entirety. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. This person has been placed on leave and is under investigation \u2026 The senior official says the termination of the official is imminent.\u201d<\/p>\n
When DHS ultimately fired Wright earlier this month, the suits says, the agency cited \u2018\u201cunfortunate circumstances\u2019 in which Mr. Wright\u2019s private, off-duty remarks were secretly recorded\u201d, but concluded that his continued employment would \u201csignal to the workforce that it is permissible for employees to undermine the Secretary, the President\u2019s and [the deciding official\u2019s] agenda and authority\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Fired #DHS #worker #sues #agency #criticized #Noem #alleged #fake #date #Trump #administration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former employee of the Depar… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}