Senior Democrats are set to ask the Justice Department to probe whether Kristi Noem lied to Congress in March.
The formal referral targets four areas of Noem’s testimony, MacFarlane News reported Monday. They include her account of the $220 million self-deportation ad campaign that featured her own likeness, conditions inside U.S. immigrant detention facilities, the Trump administration’s detention of American citizens, and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) alleged defiance of federal court orders.
Directed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, it will be signed by Sen. Dick Durbin, 81, the Illinois Democrat who holds the ranking position on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, 63, of Maryland, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, MacFarlane reported.
The pair will contend that statements Noem, 54, made during testimony on March 3 and 4 “appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress.”
DHS rejected the allegation. “Any claim that Secretary Noem committed perjury is categorically false,” a department spokesperson told the Beast.
The ad campaign testimony is expected to draw particular scrutiny. When Sen. John Kennedy, 74, the Louisiana Republican, asked Noem on March 3 whether Trump had known in advance about the advertisements, she answered, “Yes.”
Days later, Trump told reporters he had no prior knowledge of the campaign. Noem also told Sen. Peter Welch, 78, of Vermont that no political appointees had been involved in the bidding process.
The committee Democrats say that is contradicted by reporting that she personally selected the four companies awarded the contract, which was granted without full and open competition and went to firms with documented ties to Noem and her political allies.
Regarding detention standards, the referral is expected to rely on ICE’s internal audits, which documented serious shortfalls in medical care. This, the Dems say, contradicts Noem’s testimony that her agency had met the federal benchmarks required for detainee treatment.
The referral is, though, not expected to be acted upon, MacFarlane reports. The Trump DOJ is under no legal obligation to launch a criminal investigation, and administration officials have given no indication they intend to.
Raskin has been in this position before. He sat on the House Select Committee that voted in 2022 to recommend criminal prosecution of Trump over January 6—a largely symbolic move that nonetheless eventually produced a Special Counsel investigation and conspiracy charges in August 2023, a case abandoned after Trump won re-election.
Noem, who was nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her love of dressing up and going on immigration raids, was removed from her Cabinet post earlier this month when Trump reassigned her as a special envoy.
He has since nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, 49, of Oklahoma, as her successor at DHS.
