IG: DHS leadership ‘systematically obstructed’ investigation of Secret Service at Butler

by WorldTribune Staff, March 6, 2026 Real World News

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general said Kristi Noem’s DHS had “systematically obstructed” his team’s investigations, including a probe into the Secret Service’s failures involving the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Noem was fired by Trump on Thursday.

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari alleged in a letter to Congress dated March 2 that his team was denied access to a highly compartmentalized intelligence program essential to uncovering what went wrong with the Secret Service detail’s performance while assigned to the Trump rally on July 13, 2024.

Kristi Noem testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. / Video Image

“I&A (Office of Intelligence and Analysis) refuses to conduct the purely ministerial act of indoctrinating OIG personnel into a compartmented program; the data owner has authorized OIG’s access,” a section of Cuffari’s letter outlining “instances of unreasonable denial” reads.

“I&A’s intransigence is impeding an OIG review related to the July 13, 2024, attempt to assassinate then-former President Donald Trump in Butler, PA.”

“This is particularly troubling given the other reported attempts on President Trump’s life coupled with the present worldwide conflict,” Cuffari wrote to congressional leaders.

Cuffari said he had also requested access to a DHS-controlled database last April in connection with a criminal investigation that had national security implications. He contends that DHS’s refusal to cooperate on the matter was “particularly egregious.”

“The department’s approach would risk compromising the investigation and needlessly complicate it and any potential prosecution,” Cuffari wrote.

DHS also revoked the Cuffari team’s access to a database that tracks which employees and contractors can access classified information, which the watchdog said it needs for investigations involving national security and other sensitive matters, according to the letter.

In addition, TSA is not providing OIG access to the Secure Flight System database, leaving the inspector general’s team unable to verify data. The watchdog has also faced resistance when seeking access to a Border Patrol database that tracks arrests, detentions and releases.

OIG argues that making case-by-case requests adds delays to its audits and probes of potential wrongdoing and that the lack of access hinders how much the watchdog can verify data shared with it as part of investigations and run analytics.

Noem insists she never blocked oversight and that the IG was simply required to narrow the scope of his requests for classified information.

“He can have access to anything at the Department of Homeland Security; he can,” Noem said during her congressional testimony earlier this week. “He just needs to provide a scoping memo. He just hasn’t done that. He wants unfettered access to every single thing in the department, and that’s not the process.”

In a Thursday report, the New York Post cited sources inside and close to the White House as saying the “final straw” prompting Trump to fire Noem was her non-answer at a House hearing Wednesday about whether she had “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski.

“Trump had been nearing a boiling point in his frustration with Noem and already was considering ousting her after she claimed to senators Tuesday that he approved $220 million in ads starring the secretary herself — but her inability to answer the question sealed her fate,” the Post’s report said.

“The question about the affair at the hearing was actually the final straw. It was f—ing brutal,” one source said of Noem’s reply, which was widely seen as an admission that she was sleeping with her subordinate. Her husband of 34 years, Bryon Noem, had joined her at the hearing. Lewandowski was not in attendance.

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