Justice Department fired official whose husband operated controversial ICEBlock app

CBS News

2 days ago

Carolyn Feinstein said she initially thought the message sent to her private email address on a late Friday afternoon was a scheme or a prank. It turned out that she was being fired from her federal job. Once Feinstein read the email, she discovered her work cellphone was no longer operating.
Feinstein's decade of work as a forensic auditor for the Justice Department's Office of Trustee — which helps oversee bankruptcies — ended on July 18, when her employment was terminated in a three-paragraph message sent by an agency administrator.
"This is a big loss to me," Feinstein told CBS News. "I have dedicated my career to the mission of the U.S. Trustee program. I believe strongly in that mission. I would get up every day knowing that my actions professionally were helping. They were adding to the greater good."
Feinstein joins dozens of other Justice Department employees who have been ousted this year. Her firing was conducted in a similar fashion to other Justice Department terminations, via an email from the agency that cited the administration's "Article II" power to fire employees.
"I felt like I was just kind of left in the dark, because that termination letter really didn't explain anything to me," Feinstein said.
But Feinstein's background and her case are different from the others.
Feinstein's husband, who operates a private business, developed a controversial phone app that helped users track the location of federal immigration agents. The ICEBlock app, which carries the moniker, "see something; tap something", bills itself as an "innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone."
ICEBlock — and similar apps that notify people about the presence of ICE agents — have grown in popularity this year, as the Trump administration aims to ramp up arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. Administration officials have lashed out at those responsible for these apps, alleging they impede the work of federal law enforcement.
In the days after the ICEBlock app was publicized in reporting by CNN and later by Trump ally and social media figure Laura Loomer, Feinstein said she notified her employers about threats she and her husband had been receiving from critics.
Feinstein said she was fired days after, with the Justice Department alleging the termination was "based on your lack of candor during an internal inquiry."
"It's dehumanizing to the federal workforce, it's treating them like commodities," said Kel McClanahan, an attorney who is representing Feinstein.
McClanahan told CBS News he views the recent wave of firings as a governmental version of a "5-year-old's tantrums."
Feinstein has a 20% ownership of the company that operates ICEBlock, which her husband runs, according to McClanahan. The lawyer told CBS News that Feinstein held an ownership stake to allow her to wind down the company if her husband were to face an emergency or die. The app is free, and Feinstein's husband told CNN he doesn't plan to monetize it.
McClanahan said Feinstein had reported her connection to the business behind the app on annual disclosure forms.
The Justice Department cited the app and Feinstein's connection to the company in a statement defending her firing.
"For several weeks, the Department of Justice inquired into this former employee's activities and discovered she has a sizable interest in All U Chart, Inc., the company that holds the IP for ICEBlock," a Justice Department spokeswoman told CBS News. "ICEBlock is an app that illegal aliens use to evade capture while endangering the lives of ICE officers by disclosing their location. This DOJ will not tolerate threats against law enforcement or law enforcement officers."
Feinstein is the latest of dozens of career Justice Department civil servants fired this year. In the hours after President Trump's second inauguration, his administration began conducting a purge of prosecutors, staff and office administrators who were involved in prosecuting people who took part in the Jan. 6 riot — a violent insurrection that Mr. Trump has sought to redefine — and the criminal investigations of Trump himself, which were shuttered in 2024 after his election.
The firings have continued this summer, with several high-profile terminations of administrators and prosecutors, who have claimed their firings were forms of political retribution.
Feinstein argued her firing will exacerbate a staffing shortage inside the agency's bankruptcy trustee audit program. She worked out of a Texas office for the U.S. Trustee Program.
"Those people are very competent and able to do their jobs, but they are only human. So when you take out someone as proficient as myself in such a vital role as auditor, it is really going to impact what that office can do for the program," she said.
The Justice Department is facing unusually severe shortages of employees in other major offices, according to multiple sources who spoke with CBS News.
In late spring, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the District of Columbia had 89 staffing openings, a capacity gap that two former prosecutors said could lead to staff being overworked and greater delays in processing cases. That office handled all of the Jan. 6 prosecutions, and saw multiple prosecutors fired early in 2025. The office's total workforce is nearly 700 people, including prosecutors and support staff.
Federal employees, including Feinstein, have the right to challenge their terminations under the government's Merit Services Protection Board. But several fired employees have told CBS News the board is jammed with a wave of new cases and is less able to move swiftly on any new complaint.
Feinstein said she loved job and misses the work.
"I'd go back in a heartbeat," she said.