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The testimony of Mary Ellen Voorhies offers a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner workings of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the chaotic period when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was embedded within federal agencies. Voorhies clarified that she wasn’t an official member of DOGE itself but was operating in tandem with the team at DHS, particularly in supporting Jed Schutt, one of the DOGE representatives from FEMA. Her primary role involved a deep dive into the bureaucratic heart of FEMA, sifting through troves of documents that Schutt and his colleagues had gathered. These weren’t just casual memos; they were the foundational blueprints of the agency, including comprehensive financial statements and organizational charts that laid out the entire hierarchy and spending structure. This phase of her work, however, was temporary. Her status as a “special government employee” (SGE) had a built-in expiration date, and as the fall of 2025 approached, Voorhies found herself at a professional crossroads, eager to continue her involvement but without the official government cover she once had.
Faced with the end of her SGE appointment, Voorhies sought a way to keep her foot in the door, and she turned to the very people she had been working with—Schutt and Corey Lewandowski—to find a solution. Their answer was as straightforward as it was ethically complex: she could simply change her hat. Instead of working for the government directly, she would become a private contractor, but not just any contractor. She would be brought on as a subcontractor to another subcontractor, a company owned by Schutt himself. This backdoor arrangement meant that Voorhies’s employment future was now tied to the very person whose work she was helping to facilitate, creating a tightly woven, and potentially problematic, web of financial and professional interests. It was a transition that effectively allowed her to continue her work on the same projects, with the same people, but under a corporate veil that shielded the details from public view.
To execute this new plan, Voorhies established a company called LV Consulting in September 2025, a business with exactly one employee: herself. The very next month, LV Consulting became a subcontractor for AnchorCode Technologies. Significantly, AnchorCode was owned by Schutt, who was himself already operating as a subcontractor to another, larger entity known as IMGE. This multi-layered structure created a significant distance between Voorhies and the ultimate source of her payments. IMGE held the “prime” contract with DHS, meaning it had the direct legal and financial relationship with the federal government. Because AnchorCode and LV Consulting were mere subcontractors, they were invisible in the federal government’s primary transparency system, the System for Award Management (SAM). This meant their existence and their financial arrangements with the government were largely hidden from public scrutiny, making it extremely difficult for watchdogs, journalists, or even other government officials to trace the flow of money or understand who was really doing the work and who was benefiting from it. None of the involved parties—AnchorCode, IMGE, or its parent group GP3 Partners—responded to requests for comment on this arrangement.
In stark contrast to the silence from the contracting companies, IMGE has a well-documented public profile. It describes itself as a “full-service” marketing agency, boasting a range of sophisticated services including audience intelligence, advanced advertising, AI-powered analytics, influencer marketing, and advocacy toolsets. This background is a far cry from disaster response or emergency management, painting a picture of a company more at home in the world of political campaigns and public image management than federal emergency operations. The company’s political connections run deep; its impressive client list includes work for the campaign of US Senator Rand Paul and Advancing American Freedom, a conservative advocacy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. This integration of political operatives into the machinery of a federal agency, particularly one as critical as FEMA, raises fundamental questions about the motivations and objectives behind the DOGE initiatives. Was the work focused purely on efficiency, or were there other, more politically aligned goals at play?
The ethical implications of this entire arrangement are alarming to experts who study federal contracting and ethics rules. A federal employee with deep expertise in government contracting, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, stated that the setup appears highly suspect and likely violates the most basic principles of government ethics. They point out that for a senior adviser to have a direct financial stake in a company that is receiving contracts from the very agency they advised is a “huge no-no” and is “literally the reason ethics rules even exist.” The employee also highlighted concerns about Schutt’s dual role with the General Services Administration (GSA). As an employee there, he would have been privy to deeply sensitive procurement data—information about how the government acquires goods and services. Using that insider knowledge to then secure contracts or subcontracts for his own financial benefit creates an undeniable and glaring conflict of interest that cuts to the heart of fair and transparent governance.
For such a deal to have been conducted lawfully, the expert explains, Schutt and Voorhies would have had to navigate a strict ethical minefield. This process would involve formally consulting with the agency’s own ethics officer and the Office of Government Ethics to officially vet the arrangement and rule on any potential conflicts. Furthermore, because Schutt was a government employee at GSA, he would normally be subject to a “cooling-off period”—a mandatory waiting period after leaving government service before he could engage in contracting work with the agency he once served, designed to prevent the immediate exploitation of insider knowledge and relationships. Margaret Dylus-Yukins, a senior legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center and a former attorney adviser to the Office of Government Ethics, adds another layer of gravity to the situation. She tells WIRED that given Voorhies’s apparent seniority and access within FEMA, she would likely have been subject to a strict two-year ban (under 18 USC Section 207) on communicating with the agency after her time as an SGE ended, unless she obtained an official waiver. A thorough search of the Federal Register found no evidence of such a waiver for either Voorhies or Schutt, leading Dylus-Yukins to a serious and direct allegation: that this arrangement, as described, is illegal under the federal criminal code.
Ultimately, this case paints a troubling picture of how the lines between public service, political influence, and private profit have become dangerously blurred. The decision by Voorhies to continue her government work through a convoluted chain of subcontractors, orchestrated in part by the very people she worked with, reflects a profound disregard for the ethical rules designed to protect the integrity of federal agencies. The involvement of companies like IMGE, with their deep political ties, only deepens the concern that this was not just about improving government efficiency but also about operating a system where political allies and insiders could leverage their positions for private gain. The lack of transparency, the absence of cooling-off periods, and the apparent failure to seek ethics guidance all point to a culture where the standard safeguards were either ignored or intentionally bypassed. For the public, this raises a critical alarm: if such questionable practices were occurring within the supposedly efficiency-driven DOGE initiative at FEMA, what other unseen deals and conflicts of interest are lurking within the broader federal government? This detailed testimony is more than just a procedural anomaly; it is a case study in how the structures meant to ensure ethical governance can be circumvented, damaging the very trust that is essential for the functioning of a democratic republic.
