Overview
- The court's Sept. 11 ruling found former acting FEMA official Karen Evans intentionally deleted Signal group messages and applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e)(2) to allow a presumption that the lost messages were unfavorable to defendants.
- Judge Susan Ilston also barred the government from introducing after-the-fact testimony denying a plan to reduce FEMA staffing, a restriction that directly affects the administration’s defenses in the lawsuit.
- Former DHS deputy chief of staff Joseph Guy lost roughly 26 FEMA-related Signal chats when he reinstalled the app, and the judge called the timing highly suspicious but declined to find he intentionally destroyed the messages.
- Court filings say Evans shortened a Signal auto-delete timer in March while litigation was pending and did not back up messages until late April, behavior the judge said showed intent to deprive plaintiffs of evidence.
- The underlying suit by federal employee unions, public-interest groups and local governments will proceed with the adverse presumption in place and with parallel probes into Guy’s possible influence on contracting and financial dealings still active.