Cisa Drops Probe Into Failed Polygraph Test Opened By Former Chief

The Department of Homeland Security has closed an investigation into seven career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who arranged a counterintelligence polygraph exam that the agency’s former acting director failed, according to three current and one former officials with knowledge of the matter.

The development marks a major vindication for the staffers, who were informed this week they had been cleared of wrongdoing and were welcome to return to CISA, according to the four people, all of whom were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

It comes more than seven months after DHS revoked their security clearances and placed them under paid investigative leave, which POLITICO first reported.

Former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin previously told POLITICO the staffers were under investigation for “misleading” CISA’s then-acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, about the need for the test, which she described as “unsanctioned.” But several officials told POLITICO at the time it was Gottumukkala who pushed to take the exam so he could review sensitive intelligence material shared with CISA.

The incident raised questions about Gottumukkala’s leadership among current and former agency officials, including several Trump administration appointees, who believed the accusations against the staffers were not credible.

Spokespeople for DHS and CISA, which is nested inside the sprawling department, did not respond to a request for comment.

The decision to drop the investigation follows a series of major leadership changes at both DHS and CISA.

Gottumukkala — who was appointed to lead the cyber agency last year by then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem — was removed from his post last month. President Donald Trump announced the following week that he was reassigning Noem out of DHS and into a newly created position.

CISA is now headed by interim director Nick Andersen, who was originally tapped by the Trump administration to head the agency’s flagship cybersecurity division. Former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) took over the role of DHS secretary earlier this week following his Senate confirmation.

The $3 billion cyber defense agency was also marred by a series of incidents involving Gottumukkala, who sought to oust other agency personnel over personal disputes and once uploaded sensitive agency contracting documents into a public version of ChatGPT. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle demanded information from CISA over some of the mishaps.

Gottumukkala did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

DHS suspended a total of seven staffers over the polygraph incident, POLITICO has reported. Those officials did not administer the test to Gottumukkala, but helped schedule and approve it.

POLITICO could not confirm if every person had been informed that the investigation against them was being dropped, but one of the four U.S. officials said all had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

The suspended staffers included CISA’s chief security officer, deputy chief of staff, an executive action officer, an agency action officer, a contractor in the agency’s security office and two officials in CISA’s intelligence division.

Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who help oversee CISA on the House Homeland Security Committee, told POLITICO they were relieved by the news. The two lawmakers wrote a letter in response to POLITICO’s reporting, demanding a briefing about the employees’ suspension.

"We are pleased that the CISA personnel punished by previous DHS and CISA leadership for doing their jobs have been cleared of wrongdoing and invited back to work, as we demanded three months ago,” Thompson and Swalwell said in a statement. “We cannot, and will not, tolerate political leadership punishing career employees for faithfully executing their security mission,” they added.