Tonight in Your Rights: No more Noem
Trump fires his DHS director. His ex-lawyer Lindsey Halligan faces a bar investigation, and 24 states challenge his new tariffs.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem experienced the familiar pattern of former Donald Trump staffers about to lose their jobs.
After a flood of leaks about her imminent departure, Trump fired her on his social media platform, nominated her successor, praised her service, and invented a seemingly ceremonial new position: “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.”
The first public sign of Noem falling out of Trump’s favor came in the middle of her deadly and disastrous surge in Minneapolis, Minn., where so-called border czar Tom Homan took over as the public face of the operation amid nationwide revulsion at civil rights abuses and killings by federal agents under her command.
During her congressional testimony, Noem tried to walk back — but not apologize for — depicting Renee Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists. A federal judge in Minneapolis found Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the subagencies under her control, in violation of more than 200 orders, and Trump’s Justice Department acknowledged DHS having violated 50 in New Jersey alone. Noem never denied having an alleged affair with Corey Lewandowski, dismissing the questions as “tabloid garbage,” but that reported relationship sparked conflict-of-interest and national security concerns, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The pair have lately been using a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country,” the Journal reported. “DHS is leasing the plane but is in the process of acquiring it for approximately $70 million.”
When questioning Noem, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) displayed a photograph of the jet’s bed.
The $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem riding a horse reportedly was the scandal that ended her tenure. Late last year, ProPublica found that the money went to a days-old contractor owned by the husband of her Homeland Security spokesperson.
Congress members on both sides of the aisle grilled Noem about the ad campaign, but Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana reportedly delivered the questioning that ended Noem’s tenure.
Pressed by Kennedy, Noem claimed that Trump approved the expenditure. Trump denied Noem’s testimony to Reuters shortly before her ouster.
Trump’s nominee to replace Noem is Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who told a gaggle of reporters that he learned about his appointment to the position “a little before you guys did.” Mullin faces a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee chaired by his nemesis Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
As reported by multiple news outlets, Mullin tore into Paul just weeks ago as a “freaking snake.” Mullin added: “I understand completely why [Paul’s] neighbor did what he did,” referring to a 2017 attack that fractured the Kentucky senator’s ribs.
Also on Thursday, a coalition of 24 states sued to stop Trump’s latest wave of tariffs, and the public learned about a Florida state bar investigation probing possible ethics violations by ex-Justice Department attack dog Lindsey Halligan, who unsuccessfully sought to prosecute James Comey and Letitia James.
All Rise News interviewed key figures in both of these stories: Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who joined the coalition against the tariffs, and Campaign for Accountability’s president Michelle Kuppersmith, who filed the complaint against Halligan.
Below the paywall:
AG Dan Rayfield explains why Trump’s latest tariffs gambit will be a costly failure.
Lindsey Halligan’s state bar probe is a shot across the bow for Trump’s legal attack dogs.
