The Department of Homeland Security has fired three additional FEMA employees tied to the deliberate decision to bypass pro-Trump homes during disaster outreach in Florida. A federal inspector general found that a FEMA crew violated the Hatch Act and agency policy by skipping 11 homes in Lake Placid following Hurricane Milton in 2024. Records showed that workers repeatedly cited signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump when explaining why the properties were passed over. The latest dismissals add to the earlier firing of the crew leader at the center of the scandal.
The misconduct occurred while FEMA’s Disaster Survivor Assistance personnel were canvassing storm-damaged neighborhoods from late October into early November 2024. Those crews were supposed to visit residents, identify immediate needs, and help survivors connect with federal assistance. Crew leader Marn’i Washington instructed workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump,” and employees later entered notes describing the political signs at properties they did not visit. The inspector general concluded that the crew’s decision deprived those residents of equal access to FEMA’s outreach operation.
FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted a separate investigation and determined that the three newly dismissed employees had “failed to meet FEMA’s standards of conduct.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said disaster relief must be provided without regard to a victim’s politics because lives can depend on the agency’s response. “The blatant abuse of power seen at FEMA under the Biden Administration was unacceptable, inhumane, and un-American,” Mullin said. “We’ve made sure that everyone responsible for this incident has been punished, and we’ll make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”
As Fox News reported, the three firings announced Thursday were in addition to previous dismissals connected to the incident. FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton said President Trump had empowered the agency to discipline those responsible and change its survivor-outreach procedures. “Under my watch, all parties involved in this situation have been held accountable,” Hamilton said. “Political bias has no room in public service.”
The inspector general’s report said the first record suggesting a crew skipped a home because of political signage appeared on October 19th, 2024. Another note entered on October 22nd stated, “did not visit due to Trump flag,” and nine additional records concerning political signs followed. Workers used general survey categories such as “Not Able to Access Property” and “Private Property” for the skipped locations. In the accompanying notes, however, all 11 records named Trump when explaining why the homes had been bypassed.
Investigators blamed weaknesses in FEMA’s training, documentation, and supervision for allowing the misconduct to occur. Disaster Survivor Assistance crews had not received ethics and Hatch Act instruction before deployment, while agency rules did not require workers to explain why they skipped a property. Crew leaders also were not required to review survivor-interaction records for accuracy or improper conduct. The report said the episode “eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal access to resources and tools.”
Washington has denied that anti-Trump bias motivated her order and said she was attempting to protect personnel from hostile encounters. She told The Washington Post that residents had charged at workers, shouted accusations, and associated FEMA with the Biden administration. Washington claimed her teams skipped only properties that displayed Trump signs alongside other indicators she considered threatening, including signs referring to guns. Investigators nevertheless found that political signage was not a permissible reason to deny a home an outreach visit.
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FEMA has since ended agency-led door-to-door survivor outreach and now assists residents at fixed locations selected with state and local officials using agency data. The department said the change fits FEMA’s mandate to support locally executed and state-led disaster responses while reducing the chance that individual crews can selectively bypass households. Hamilton said assistance under the revised approach will be driven by need rather than politics. “What happened under the Biden Administration was unacceptable,” he said. “Under President Trump, political bias has no place at FEMA.”