Federal Agency Scrubs Metadata After Memo Exposes Authors Were Affiliated With Controversial Project 2025
Screengrab via 404 Media
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) scrambled to scrub memos sent to federal employees—dictating policies on hiring freezes, firing, and mandatory return-to-office requirements—after initial publication of the documents contained metadata revealing they were authored by individuals tied to Project 2025.
The memos in question, publicly available on the federal CHCO website on Monday, raised eyebrows after a Reddit user on r/fednews exposed their metadata.
“If you download them and view the document properties, you can see the author. Several are authored by lobbyists and lawyers… outside of the OPM,” the post noted.
The metadata revealed the authors’ identities as individuals affiliated with the Heritage Foundation think tank’s Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for reshaping federal governance, according to 404 Media.
One memo, titled Guidance on Presidential Memorandum Return to In-Person Work and dated January 24, listed its author as Noah Peters, a senior advisor at OPM and former Trump appointee who served as Solicitor for the Federal Labor Relations Authority during Trump’s first term.
Another memo, Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze Guidance, was authored by James Sherk, who 404 Media highlights as an architect of the Trump administration’s Schedule F classification, which stripped employment protections from federal workers.
Sherk, formerly of the Heritage Foundation, has argued for eliminating workers who “want [to] be a political activist on the job” and replacing them with staff who align with presidential policy goals.
Despite Trump’s public denials of involvement with Project 2025 and distancing from the blueprint, the metadata leak is the latest evidence of how he has tapped its contributors for high-ranking roles.
Although the OPM deleted the initial documents before uploading amended ones, tech industry researcher Molly White has hosted the original memos on her website in full.
