ProPublica: Noem Took Cut of Political Donations

And nothing will come of it.

"She did not include the income from the dark money group on her disclosure form, which experts called a likely violation of federal ethics requirements."

Drain the Swamp!

I had thought Noem being a small town girl with a foursquare gospel background would be far more grounded. But her unbridled passion for Trumpism seems to have bogged her down. A true farmgirl would never wear a 50k Rolex. She seems to just a be a slightly smarter version of Sarah Palin. Sad that my hopes were dashed with her. So many attracted to politics for the wrong reasons. A true public servant understands one has to go the extra mile not to be corrupt and pretentious. Sadly, there are so few of those and the public marches on with their drama queens on both sides.

Interesting read: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...c7e-928d-442a-b7c3-e30bef49923b.1755525287810

Firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from government contracts​

On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”

Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with longstanding personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.

Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser [wink wink] at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.

“It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is not the first time that the Strategy Group has gotten public money through a Noem contract. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, her administration set off a scandal by hiring the Ohio-based company to do a different ad campaign, paying it $8.5 million in state funds. While the state said the contract was done by the book, a former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal. ProPublica granted some people anonymity to discuss the deals because of their sensitivity.