Murphy alleges that his superiors, including senior officials in the DHS, engaged in “attempted abuse of authority” and possibly violated federal law. In his whistleblower complaint, Murphy says his supervisors essentially fabricated intelligence products on pressing security matters, in order to make them agreeable to President Donald Trump. In doing so, claims Murphy, these officials tried to “censor and manipulate the intelligence information” produced by DHS analysts, in order to further President Trump’s agenda.

In his complaint, Murphy identifies acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, his predecessor, Kirstjen Nielsen, and Wolf’s deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, as individuals who pressured him to change his intelligence products. The pressures allegedly began with reference to Russian interference in the US presidential elections of 2016. According to Murphy, his supervisors instructed him to “cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, [and] instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran”.

The pressures, according to Murphy, later expanded to include efforts to get him to downplay the domestic terrorist threat posed by far-right organizations, and to accentuate purported links between terrorism and immigration to the US coming from Latin America. In late 2018, the then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told Congress that nearly 3,800 documented terrorists crossed the US border from Mexico. But Murphy alleges that the actual number was just three confirmed cases.

The complaint further alleges that Murphy was removed from his post in August of this year, and was “de facto demoted” after he confronted Wolf and Cuccinelli and refused to “manipulate intelligence for political reasons”. Murphy’s removal was one of a number of “retaliatory actions” against him for refusing to comply with his superiors’ pressures, according to the complaint.