A Bumble date that turned into a secretly recorded political chat has now become a First Amendment fight with the Department of Homeland Security. Brandon Wright, an IT specialist who spent eight years at DHS, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday alleging he was illegally fired after a woman he met on the app covertly recorded him criticizing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem over drinks—and that the footage was then packaged and posted online by conservative activist James O'Keefe's media group, per the Guardian. Wright says the date, with a woman IDed in court papers as "Heidi Doe," was a setup orchestrated "for compensation and/or in conjunction" with O'Keefe Media Group, and that the woman repeatedly nudged the conversation toward politics in general and Noem specifically.
The 13-minute video later surfaced on YouTube, X, and O'Keefe's site, pushing it as a recording that showed a DHS employee bad-mouthing his boss. According to the complaint, it was edited with repeated, out-of-context clips and recorded without Wright's consent. After the footage spread, DHS placed Wright on administrative leave on Jan. 30, 2025. The agency fired him on Jan. 8 of this year for "conduct unbecoming of a federal employee," citing concerns that keeping him on would suggest it was acceptable to "undermine the Secretary [and] the President's ... agenda."
Wright's lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC, argues that his off-duty remarks on a matter of public concern are core protected speech and that the government unlawfully retaliated against him for expressing personal opinions in a private setting. He's suing DHS, Noem, and "Heidi Doe," but not O'Keefe or his company. Wright's attorney, Mark Zaid, frames the case as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to stamp out dissent, saying federal workers are still entitled to criticize their own government. DHS didn't respond to a request for comment; O'Keefe and his lawyers also didn't immediately respond in connection with this case.
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