Congressional Democrats asked the Justice Department on Monday to investigate whether departing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem committed perjury by telling lawmakers President Trump knew about her $220 million contract for a self-deportation ad campaign.
Ms. Noem told senators in testimony earlier this month that the president knew she was going to issue the contract. She said she’d even run the idea by him before she took office.
Mr. Trump, though, told Reuters he “never knew anything about it.”
Democrats said Ms. Noem also may have lied to lawmakers when she said she wasn’t involved in picking the firms that won the contract, which produced ads prominently featuring Ms. Noem urging illegal immigrants to go home.
Ms. Noem said the contracts were competitively bid, but Democrats presented evidence showing that wasn’t true.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrats on the Senate and House judiciary committees, said the evidence shows Ms. Noem “repeatedly misled” the two committees.
“A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress,” they wrote in a letter referring the matter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Washington Times has sought comment from DHS.
Democrats, in addition to the contract dispute, also cited Ms. Noem for saying her department complies with court orders, for saying DHS doesn’t “detain American citizens” in the immigration context, and asserting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities meet high standards.
In each of those cases, the disputes seem to come down to Ms. Noem expressing a policy or standard, while Democrats countered with times when the department didn’t meet the standard.
The accusations are similar to those lodged by Republicans against Ms. Noem’s predecessor, then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He would go on to become the first sitting Cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached, though the case was dismissed without a trial by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Ms. Noem, a former South Dakota governor, is being booted by Mr. Trump from the secretary’s post and given a job as a coordinator for anti-cartel efforts in the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, for the secretary’s post.
