Overview
Kara Voorhies worked alongside a DOGE-linked team in FEMA/DHS-related activities in 2025. WIRED's August 2026 reporting on sworn deposition testimony describes her shift from special-government-employee status to subcontracting through a company owned by DOGE operative Kyle Schutt, while continuing to perform DHS-related work. Critics and ethics specialists have raised questions about the arrangement; no judicial finding of wrongdoing is established by the available report.
Position and personnel transition
According to her sworn testimony as reported by WIRED, Voorhies joined DHS in April 2025 and reviewed documents gathered by DOGE personnel including financial statements and organization charts. After her special-government-employee period ended, she created LV Consulting in September 2025. Her firm began subcontracting through Kyle Schutt's AnchorCode in October 2025. [1]
Funding and authority questions
WIRED reports Voorhies testified to a $325-per-hour contract through the chain IMGE → AnchorCode → LV Consulting, continuing into March 2026. She maintained she had no formal authority to make agency decisions. Reporting and congressional letters raised questions about her practical role in reviewing federal contracts and grants. Her denial of formal decision authority is material and should not be omitted when discussing the allegations. [1]
Unresolved issues
The exact subcontract, any ethics advice or waiver, agency instructions, and individual approvals are required to establish whether particular activities breached federal post-employment or procurement restrictions. Experts quoted by WIRED raised potential conflicts; those statements are not agency or court determinations. [1]
September 2026 court findings: a DHS-to-FEMA staffing instruction chain
In AFGE v. Trump (September 11, 2026), a federal district court examined sworn testimony and contemporaneous December 2025 planner notes showing that former DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Guy and Voorhies were the likely DHS-level sources of a direction to Karen Evans, then acting FEMA head, to submit a roughly 50% staffing reduction option. Evans's notes from December 4 recorded a discussion with Voorhies of a proposed 11,383 staffing figure. The judge found the plan and a related nonrenewal decision unlawful under the APA and FEMA's statutory protections. This court-tested personnel role is distinct from the earlier reported AnchorCode subcontract chain. Read judicial findings, Document 491.
In a separate September 11 ruling, the court sanctioned defendants over destroyed Signal messages, finding intentional deletion by Evans while not making the same finding about Guy. The record identified FEMA RIF and FEMA 2.0 group communications involving Voorhies, Guy and Evans. The ruling does not establish that Voorhies personally deleted all missing messages or that an outside political financier directed the FEMA plan. Read preservation ruling, Document 490.
Source records and limits
Evidence standard: Employment, contract and reporting links are documented separately. A role or business connection alone is not proof of improper direction or a legal violation.