Fired DHS worker sues agency after he criticized Noem on an alleged fake date
Source: The Guardian
Wed 21 Jan 2026 14.26 EST
Last modified on Wed 21 Jan 2026 15.27 EST
A former employee of the Department of Homeland Security who was fired after video circulated of him on a date criticizing the agency’s head, Kristi Noem, sued the department on Monday, alleging the termination violated his first amendment rights.
Brandon Wright, who worked at DHS for eight years in IT, said in a federal lawsuit that his time at the agency came to an “abrupt end” because of the “yellow journalism tactics” deployed by an unidentified woman he met on the dating app Bumble.
Wright’s lawsuit alleges that she unwittingly recorded him while they discussed Noem over cocktails. The suit alleges that the woman, who is referred to as Heidi Doe in court papers, was “working for compensation and/or in conjunction” with the conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and his company O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), and steered the conversation towards the topic of politics and Noem.
After 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. Wright alleges that by terminating him DHS violated his first amendment right to freedom of speech, which allows “government employees to speak on matters of public concern and to third parties without fear of retribution and retaliation”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/21/fired-dhs-worker-date-lawsuit-noem
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.288543/gov.uscourts.dcd.288543.1.0.pdf