Two Democrats have referred evidence to the Department of Justice alleging that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem committed perjury when she testified before Congress this month.
"Noem repeatedly misled the Senate Committee on the Judiciary during her testimony," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote in a letter to the DOJ.
"A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress," the lawmakers added. "Making false statements to Congress, and making false statements under oath, are federal crimes."
In their letter, Durbin and Raskin cite testimony Noem gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3 and the next day when she testified to the House Judiciary Committee.
Durbin and Raskin noted that Noem said the department follows all federal court orders and that no one in Immigration and Customs and Enforcement lied to a judge, but they pointed to a court order from a Minnesota judge last month that cited ICE for violating 210 orders in 143 separate cases.
Noem also said President Donald Trump knew her department was going to spend $220 million on TV ads that featured Noem, including one at Mount Rushmore. Trump denied any knowledge of the campaign in an interview.
"These two statements are clearly inconsistent; one of them has to be false," Durbin and Raskin wrote.
The Democrats also charge that Noem lied when she said there was a competitive bid process to determine who would produce the ad campaign. Reporting by NBC News said Noem handpicked contractors for a $100 million project to recruit ICE officers.
"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," Raskin and Durbin wrote.
Trump announced he was replacing Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., after her second day of testimony.
Durbin and Raskin finished their letter with a shot at Attorney General Pam Bondi.
"While we have low expectations that you will pursue this matter given your partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, we note that the statute of limitations for perjury and for knowingly and willfully making false statements to Congress is five years," Durbin and Raskin wrote.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security denied the allegations.
"Any claim that Secretary Noem committed perjury is categorically FALSE," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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