Court Filing Backs Up Claims Of ‘shadow Administrator’ At Fema

Documents submitted as evidence in a suit against the Trump administration appear to back up allegations that officials delegated leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to an outside contractor who is currently a subject of multiple ethics investigations.

Plaintiffs challenging the White House’s various moves to downsize the federal government obtained undated messages between Kara Voorhies, a Department of Homeland Security contractor, and Karen Evans, FEMA’s chief of staff. Voorhies has previously been accused of acting as an unofficial superior to Evans, a cybersecurity expert who has also served as the acting head of FEMA since December. Federal regulations generally prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions, such as making policy decisions, awarding contracts or directing federal personnel.

In one exchange, Voorhies instructs Evans to “do a data call to find out how many contractors work at FEMA” in the name of restructuring the agency, and directs the agency’s leader on how she should go about obtaining the data.

“How do you want the data? On site? Off site? Please provide specifics,” Evans responds, according to the documents.

In another exchange, Voorhies reacted sharply after receiving a link to a Jan. 23 CNN article reporting that FEMA had paused terminations amid a major winter storm, asking Evans and others in a group chat “why the hell” that information was made public.

In a deposition submitted in the case, Evans also said that after FEMA leadership made decisions, she and other FEMA leaders went to Voorhies for final approval.

The messages and depositions provide concrete examples of the amount of weight Voorhies, whose contract has ended, carried at the agency under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It’s also a sign that Secretary Markwayne Mullin may need to rectify breaches in FEMA’s operations that occurred under his predecessor.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case — which include the country’s largest unions, the governments of San Francisco, Baltimore and Chicago, along with several nonprofit groups — also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senior FEMA officials and lawmakers have alleged that Voorhies secretly served as the per se head of the agency despite lacking relevant experience and bypassing the usual vetting, nominations and confirmation process for high-level officials. A “current senior official” at DHS described Voorhies as a “shadow administrator” to CNN in March, a moniker lawmakers have also used.

Republican lawmakers are currently investigating how DHS handled contracting matters in recent months, and probing Voorhies’ role in those decisions.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has accused the administration of delegating leadership authority over FEMA to the former contractor.

“I have reason to believe that DHS has delegated responsibilities of the FEMA administrator to an outside contractor. Who is Kara Voorhies? What is her official role in DHS?” Tillis asked during a speech on the Senate floor last month.

In one of the depositions in the court case, Evans described Voorhies as a “senior adviser to the secretary on FEMA” and said Voorhies was given an official FEMA email address.

Evans claimed that she made sure Voorhies was not involved in FEMA personnel matters and insisted she sought a “clear delineation between DHS headquarters and FEMA.” Still, Evans in her deposition conceded she copied Voorhies on emails about FEMA staffing and spoke with Voorhies about whether to extend the contracts for the agency’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, who provide direct support to victims of natural disasters and other emergencies.

FEMA’s chief human resources officer, La’Toya Prieur, acknowledged in a separate deposition the confusion about Voorhies’ role at FEMA, and said it risked breaching the privacy rights of federal employees under the Privacy Act of 1974. Contractors are not supposed to have access to personal identifying information about federal employees, and Prieur indicated such information may have been included in the data Evans gave her.

FEMA has been without a full-time administrator since the Trump administration took office in 2025. A rotating cast of officials has taken turns in the role of acting administrator, attracting bipartisan criticism that the agency is without leadership while managing federal responses to a spate of recent major disasters such as major wildfires in California and winter storms across the country.

Voorhies worked closely with Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager and informal adviser to Noem. The Washington Post previously reported that agency investigators removed documents and equipment from Voorhies’ office last month during an ongoing investigation into contracts issued during Noem’s tenure.

The depositions also confirmed that Lewandowski and Joseph Guy, a deputy chief of staff under Noem, were involved in the conversations around retooling FEMA.

The role of Lewandowski in the contract approval process has also drawn bipartisan scrutiny over allegations the contracts were being steered to political allies of Noem.