Democrats demand DOJ perjury probe into Kristi Noem

WASHINGTON (CN) — Congressional Democrats on Monday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem committed perjury during a pair of acrimonious hearings with lawmakers that culminated in her dismissal from the agency.

The Justice Department referral, made by top Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, formalized weeks of accusations that the outgoing DHS head lied to Congress about the details of a $220 million agency advertising campaign, as well as claims she misled lawmakers about the conditions at immigration detention facilities and her department’s adherence to federal court orders.

Writing to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin claimed that Noem “repeatedly misled” the House and Senate Judiciary Committees during testimony in early March.

“A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress,” the lawmakers wrote.

Durbin and Raskin pointed to an exchange between Noem and Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who pressed her on a Homeland Security ad campaign that he said featured her “prominently.”

Noem told Kennedy that the contract to produce the advertisements had been procured using a “competitive bid,” and that President Donald Trump knew about the $220 million ad buy.

But the Democrats cited reports that one of the primary contractors had been selected outside the competitive process, and that the company —  Safe America Media — had been incorporated just over a week before they were awarded $143 million to produce the DHS advertisements. The lawmakers also pointed to comments from the president in which he said he “never knew anything” about the campaign.

“These two statements are clearly inconsistent; one of them has to be false,” said Durbin and Raskin. “Even if Secretary Noem was the one telling the truth about the president’s knowledge, and she may well have been, she flatly misrepresented that the contract had been subject to a competitive bid.”

The referral also cited what the Democrats said were Noem’s false claims about DHS adherence to court orders.

The Homeland Security leader told House lawmakers that her agency “always” followed the orders of federal judges and that she was “not aware of any situations” where immigration agents have violated court orders or lied to judges.

“Those statements were false,” said Durbin and Raskin. “DHS has repeatedly defied court orders to release individuals from ICE detention and has even failed to release individuals for days or weeks after a court-ordered date.”

Federal judges in Minnesota and New Jersey determined immigration enforcement agents violated hundreds of judicial orders in their courts alone.

The lawmakers further accused Noem of lying about detaining U.S. citizens and about standards at federal immigration detention facilities. Despite her claims that the agency’s detention standards were “higher than virtually all state and local detention standards,” court filings show that people detained reported denial of medical care and moldy food.

Durbin and Raskin noted to Bondi that they had “low expectations” their referral would result in a Justice Department probe but pointed out that the statute of limitations for perjury and making false statements to Congress is five years — meaning a future Democratic administration could pursue charges against Noem.

The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

The outgoing secretary faced sharp questions from House and Senate lawmakers earlier this month in a week of hearings before their respective judiciary committees. In addition to her statements connecting Trump to the DHS advertising campaign and downplaying concerns about immigration detention centers, Noem refused to walk back previous comments branding Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen killed by federal agents in January, as a “domestic terrorist.”

“I was getting reports on the ground from agents on the scene,” Noem told lawmakers. She added that Pretti’s death was a “tragic loss of life” but stopped short of admitting she and other administration officials had mischaracterized the victim.

The DHS secretary also denied to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that members of her agency relied on arrest or deportation quotas, despite public claims by White House adviser Stephen Miller that the administration aimed to make 3,000 arrests daily.

“When we do law enforcement operations, we do them on targeted enforcement,” Noem said at the time. “We do not have quotas for any of our law enforcement.”

She added that she had not directed DHS to issue any rule or clarification rejecting the use of arrest and deportation quotas because there had been “no discussion or requirement” of such a strategy at her agency.

But in sworn testimony before a federal judge in Oregon, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent said that he and his team were told to target eight arrests per day during operations in Portland last year. The agent testified that immigration officers used an app provided by DHS that helped them find areas where they could make a greater number of arrests.

Noem’s apparently contradictory statements to lawmakers about arrest quotas were not included in Democrats’ referral to the Justice Department on Monday.

Trump fired Noem just days after she appeared before Congress, writing in a social media post that he had reassigned her to oversee a new U.S.-led regional military initiative. The president has tapped Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her — the lawmaker is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

The outgoing Noem will remain at the head of DHS until March 31.

Follow @BenjaminSWeiss