A prominent aide to Kristi Noem, who is speculated to be in a romantic relationship with Corey Lewandowski, deleted close to 30 secret Signal discussions involving them on the very day he left the Trump administration, as per court documents scrutinized by PunchUp.
Joseph Guy, who was earlier employed as a deputy chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, deleted the FEMA-related group chats—comprising 20 participants, which sources have informed the Daily Beast’s new sister investigations Substack included Noem, 54, and her then chief adviser Lewandowski, 52—from his personal phone at the end of April.
Kristi Noem’s aide deletes key Signal messages before leaving Trump admin
At that time, the two were embroiled in a rapidly escalating scandal regarding the distribution of contracts during their tenure. The deletions occurred just weeks after the department’s own inspector general initiated an investigation into those contracts.
A week prior to the deletion of Guy’s messages, NBC News reported that Lewandowski had solicited payments from government contractors in return for favorable treatment. He has denied these allegations and requested a retraction. However, the story remains active and unchanged.
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House Democrats have previously accused Noem of providing misleading testimony to Congress. She informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that Lewandowski had no involvement in the approval of contracts. Democrats asserted that the evidence directly contradicted this claim, as stated in their joint letter to the Department of Homeland Security. The letter dated March 18 cautioned that the destruction of any records related to Lewandowski would be regarded as evidence tampering.
Here’s what Joseph Guy said under oath
Guy himself reveled the deletions while under oath during his deposition on May 4, as reported by PunchUp. When instructed to unlock his phone and read his group chats, he revealed that nearly 30 FEMA-related Signal threads were stored on it.
His account, detailed in a preservation order issued by Judge Susan Illston, who was appointed by Clinton, says that on April 30 or May 1, he attempted to reinstall Signal, which resulted in the loss of messages and their backups. Notably, April 30 marked his final day on the federal payroll. The judge stated that she was “seriously troubled by these allegations of spoliation.”
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Were Noem or Lewandowski informed about deletion?
There is no indication that Noem or Lewandowski were aware of Guy’s deletions. Guy’s legal representatives at Binnall Law Group stated to PunchUp: “Mr. Guy never intentionally deleted the messages” in question.
They categorically refuted any claims that he had discussed the deletion of messages with Noem, Lewandowski, or any associates. “Any assertion to the contrary is a lie,” the spokesperson asserted.
According to PunchUp, the deletions have already had financial repercussions for the government. Illston determined that the lost evidence significantly undermined its efforts to maintain the confidentiality of FEMA staffing plans, as there is minimal evidence available elsewhere. She mandated that DHS and FEMA submit those plans by last Monday and rejected the administration’s attempt to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, Noem and Lewandowski have consistently refuted allegations of an affair, with the former describing the accusations to Congress as “tabloid garbage.”
