The DHS watchdog has been examining Kristi Noem’s $220 million self-deportation ad campaign for more than a month, according to a new report.
The DHS Office of Inspector General (IG) probe is focused on how $220 million tied to Noem’s ad campaign was routed through two lead contractors, Safe America Media and People Who Think, with a third firm, Strategy Group, receiving subcontracted work, RealClearPolitics reported Wednesday.
As the Beast has previously reported, the deal allegedly funnelled public money to a circle of Noem’s political allies and personal associates.
A source in the DHS community told the outlet that the existence of the probe has raised concern inside the watchdog agency that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Noem, 54, and her team were “retaliating” by not allowing the IG to “work real cases,” because she and her top adviser and rumored lover Corey Lewandowski, 52, could be implicated in the contracts inquiry.
The claim comes days after Inspector General Joseph Cuffari told Congress that DHS leaders had “systematically obstructed” his office across several active matters. They included a criminal probe and an inquiry into the Secret Service’s failures before and after the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, 79, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cuffari warned lawmakers the move was “particularly troubling given the other reported attempts on President Trump’s life coupled with the present worldwide conflict,” and asked for congressional help in resolving the standoff.
He also said ICE stripped the watchdog of years-long access to key enforcement databases late last year, while CBP refused access to a warehouse containing border-crossing data.
DHS general counsel James Percival responded in late January, arguing that the watchdog had refused to provide “answers to basic questions” and requesting a full inventory of every active IG investigation.
Cuffari was ultimately forced by law to hand over the list, even though no other inspector general had been asked to do so in the 48 years since Congress created the watchdog system, according to the report.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, 57, an Illinois Democrat, accused Percival’s move of being an attempt to “sabotage” the watchdog’s independence.
At the center of the row is the ad money itself. Safe America Media landed the biggest chunk, a $143 million contract, after being incorporated in Delaware less than two weeks earlier, according to the report, and having had no office, no website, and no prior federal contracting record.
The company is headed by veteran Republican operative Michael McElwain. Through his firm DMM Media, McElwain has become a prominent ad buyer for Senate Republican campaign committees.
One of DMM’s top ad makers, Patrick McCarthy, is best known for producing Trump’s viral 2024 “They/Them” spot, which attacked then–Vice President Kamala Harris over her support for transgender surgeries for California prisoners.
The other prime award, worth $77 million, went to People Who Think, a firm associated with Republican strategist Jay Connaughton, who had worked with Lewandowski on Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s gubernatorial campaign.
Lawmakers also zeroed in on subcontracted work involving Ben Yoho’s Strategy Group, pressing Noem on why campaign-linked figures kept surfacing around the ad buy. Yoho, 38, attended Noem’s 2023 gubernatorial inauguration seated next to Lewandowski, and ran the ad side of her 2022 South Dakota reelection campaign.
Yoho’s wife, Tricia McLaughlin, 31, served as Noem’s assistant secretary for public affairs until departing the agency last month—meaning federal dollars were flowing to the husband of Noem’s own chief spokesperson. McLaughlin has previously said she “recused” herself from relevant contract decisions, telling ProPublica: “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.”
The contracts triggered a bruising Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week in which even MAGA loyalists turned on Noem. Republicans John Kennedy and Thom Tillis joined Democrat Peter Welch in pressing her over the no-bid process.
Welch and Richard Blumenthal subsequently sent letters to all three firms demanding documents and answers by March 13. The controversy contributed directly to Trump’s decision to fire Noem, who is due to leave her post by March 31. Trump has tapped Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, 48, as her replacement.
DHS denied any attempt to stonewall investigators. “It is completely false that there has been any kind of retaliation against the IG and his staff,” a DHS spokesperson told RealClearPolitics.
Lewandowski has previously told the Beast he has not “made one penny, not a single cent from anybody involved with the ad campaign.”
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS, Noem and Lewandowski for comment.
