Kristi Noem Stunned as Trump DOJ Opens Door to Criminal Charges

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1:22Did Donald Trump and his D.C. U.S. attorney Janine Pirro just open the door to a criminal prosecution of disgraced former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for lying to Congress earlier this month? now that the Senate and House Democrats have called on the Department of Justice to open up a criminal investigation about four separate categories of lies that they claim Kristi Noem made about a$220 million ad campaign that$140 million of which ended up in the pockets of people that she's close to, whether she lied about her relationship with Corey Lewandowski and his power to approve contracts, whether she lied about the Department of Homeland Security violating federal court orders and the rest.

2:16And my question here on the Midas Touch Network, did Janine Pirro, the inexperienced prosecutor but Trump ally, open the door for this prosecution at a press conference, an unhinged press conference, just in the last 24 hours, in which she said that the cost overruns of the construction project for the Federal Reserve warranted a criminal investigation because of the waste of taxpayer dollars. Then what would you call the$220 million spent on a Mount Rushmore horse and pony show starring Kristi Noem, in which she lied, according to Donald Trump, lied about getting his approval for it, lied about it being competitively bid.

3:03There's more evidence here to support a grand jury subpoena than against Jay Powell. Thank you, Janine Pirro. Thank you, Donald Trump. Thank you, audience from Midas Touch Network. I'm Michael Popok. Let's talk about a new letter just came out from the House and Senate Democrats led by Dick Durbin and Blumenthal on the Senate side, Jamie Raskin on the House side, demanding a criminal investigation be opened about Kristi Noem. You can do a lot of things politically in an ad campaign, but you're not allowed to lie under oath to senators and congresspeople trying to provide oversight over you about key and fundamental issues about how you're spending or wasting the taxpayers' dollars, who you're in bed with, literally, related to contracting, whether you're violating court orders, and the rest.

3:55Now, let me frame this for you. Just in the last 24 hours, Janine Pirro, U.S. attorney, it's hard for me to form that sentence, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia said this about being angry and upset with Jeb Boesberg, the chief judge in D.C., not allowing her criminal prosecution of Jay Powell for construction overruns to go forward. Here's what she said, and listen to how it frames the issue for Kristi Noem and compels a prosecution of Kristi Noem. Play it. The American public is fed up with public monies that seem to go into a black hole, especially in D.C., where no one is held accountable.

4:43One of the age-old tools that all prosecutors have to investigate any crime, including cost overruns, is a grand jury subpoena. I don't believe anything happens by accident in the Trump administration. Not somebody so close to Donald Trump as Jeanine Pirro. Because Donald Trump's trying to dig out from under the Kristi Noem issue, right? Doesn't like to talk about it. In fact, when he was asked about it in an interview, he said, after being informed that Kristi Noem said that the president had approved the$220 million budget for the ad campaign starring Kristi Noem, he said, I didn't approve it.

5:27In fact, he can't wait to get off the topic. Here's a clip of Donald Trump. Is it possible to stay on this subject just for once? Can you tell us what went into your decision to replace Secretary Noem with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen? is it possible to stay on this subject just for once you know just for once boy oh boy anybody have any questions on this subject does that sound like somebody that's uh got the back of christy noem and nor should he march 3rd and march 4th we watched with rapt attention as christy noem took her chair swore an oath that she would tell the truth and then lied and particularly she lied about a number of categories of things.

6:08She lied about how much power an unpaid leader named Corey Lewandowski, who apparently she's dating, how much power he had over contracts, ProPublica reporting that he was on the routing sheet to sign off on all contracts of a certain dollar amount. She lied about that. She lied about how many and whether the Homeland Security Department Department was complying with federal orders of judges or not. How many violations of orders have there been? She lied and said, we comply with the law. Really? Then where was she when Judge Schultz, the chief judge in Minneapolis, cataloged at least 220 violations by ICE and Border Patrol of orders in his district alone?

6:57Where was she when a judge in New Jersey, federal judge, cataloged up to 100 violations of federal orders by her department. Judge Schultz went as far as to say that he believes in the history of America. Homeland Security has violated more orders in the month of January than some cabinet-level positions have violated their entire existence. But here's the one, you might be wondering what hanged her with all of that. What was the final straw? oh, yeah, throwing Donald Trump under the bus and lying about whether the$220 million of an ad campaign was competitively bid or not. Here's what she told Senator Schiff about competitive bidding and just said it was just a coincidence that a fair share of that$220 million ended up in the company of somebody that she's close with and one of her closest advisors' family owns it.

7:53Play the clip. So it's just a coincidence that a$143 million subcontract contract went to the husband of your press person, also someone that Corey Lewandowski, one of your special government employees, worked with extensively. So that was all a coincidence, right? Because you had no knowledge of this, no involvement, and none of the people around you had any involvement. So taxpayers should just assume this is a coincidence. We don't weigh in on who subcontractors are. There's not a legal process for us to determine what subcontractors are a part of a contract that goes out for a competitive bid.

8:30And only career employees at DHS were in on the choosing of those media contracts. Can you state for the record, then, that neither you nor Mr. Lewandowski nor your press secretary married to the husband of the person who got this$143 million contract? We were not a part of the decision-making. Can you state for the record that none of you that I've just described had any role, played any part, made any communication with any government agency that was involved in deciding who would get that contract? To the best of my knowledge, none of us were involved in deciding who got those contracts. None deciding, but were any of you involved in advocating, communicating, or expressing a preference in any way with the government?

9:09Excuse me. Let me just finish the question. Were any of you involved in any way in communicating, expressing a preference in any form, manner, verbal written with any government agency that was involved in the contracting process. The process was followed for that contract. That is for all media contracts that have gone forward. To my knowledge, there was no involvement whatsoever of anybody that is on the political appointee side of this position and that media contract. The next day when the House Representative Neguse or Neguse started to ask your questions, she had to admit that it was not competitively bid.

9:46See, we like large dollar contracts to be competitively bid to make sure the taxpayer gets the lowest cost provider. And she had to admit that it wasn't. So she lied. Let's play that clip. You have spent$220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently. And you're saying that you're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time? We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people. No, ma 'am, sorry to interrupt. But the president approved ahead of time you spending$220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.

10:32Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct? Did the president know you were going to do this? Yes. He did. Even Senator Kennedy. No, not that one. In Louisiana, a MAGA senator who later said she was about as dead as fried chicken, said he could not believe his ears when she tried to claim that Donald Trump approved that$220 million contract. Play Senator Kennedy. That's inaccurate, Madam Secretary. I'll read from the notice from your agency. Given the immediate action to significantly reduce illegal immigration and border crossings, DHS invited, excuse me, identified four companies.

11:09Four of the hundreds of thousands of companies in the United States, you identified four. One of those is this Safe America Media company. Where is Safe America Media headquartered? I don't know. I don't know either, Madam Secretary. We can't find it. We can't find a website. We did find an address that's registered for this company. Do you know where that address is? Is there a problem with this contract? I'll tell you about it. Madam Secretary, the address is registered to a political operative. It was dollars that were spent. Madam Secretary, the company, and I'll give you an opportunity to respond.

11:40The company is registered to a political operative in Virginia. Do you know, just by way of example, whether this company that received$143 million in taxpayer dollars, has it ever done work for the government before? I don't know. I can't. The answer is it has not. And do you know why we know that? Because it was incorporated eight days, eight days before this contract went out. You want the American people to believe that this is all above board? that$143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn't have a headquarters, doesn't have a website, has never done work for the federal government before, and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative.

12:25And of course, one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that's tied to you back when you were governor of South Dakota. Magic Spoon is basically the grown up version of your favorite childhood cereals. Same fun taste and those nostalgic Saturday morning vibes. Magic Spoon Cereal is a high-protein, zero-sugar cereal that tastes like the classics you grew up with. Each serving packs 12 to 14 grams of protein, zero to two grams of sugar, and four to five grams of net carbs. And it's certified gluten-free, so it's a simple option, whether it's breakfast, a snack, or something late at night.

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13:45Look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or at your nearest grocery store or get$5 off your next order at magicspoon.com. slash Legal AF. That's Magicspoon.com slash Legal AF for$5 off. Now, here's what the letter says demanding that the prosecution be opened. First, what is the law that's been violated? 18 United States Code, Section 1001, lying to Congress. It's the same one they're using or trying to use against former FBI Director James Comey. It's got a five-year statute of limitations, which means until March of 2031, she's on the hook, unless Donald Trump does what we all think he's going to do on the way out, which is to pardon everybody.

14:32Pardon, pardon, pardon, pardon me. And that's okay. Some people are like, well, she'll never get justice because she'll be pardoned. But what we want is the destruction of the MAGA party. We want it to be completely outed as the party of corruption. And the political capital that Donald Trump's going to have to expend in order to give a pardon to every member of his cabinet will be the final cherry on the top. I don't know why I'm doing this with my hands. Be the final cherry on the top of the sundae, icing on the cake to prove what we always suspected that MAGA was depraved, immoral, illegal, and pardoning everybody's going to do it.

15:13So we'll force him to pardon, and that will be a gift to put a final period on the corruption of that party led by Donald Trump. They go through in the case all of the back and forth. They say Secretary Noem, for instance, on page two, repeated these false claims before the House Judiciary Committee that there's never been a federal court order that's been violated, completely ignoring what all of the judges have found. When asked to clarify, she reiterated, we follow court orders when they are given to us. federal court orders we follow absolutely in response to a question by senator booker your agency complies with court orders yes that's a lie and we know it from other federal judges then they went over the questioning about the 220 million dollar ad campaign case you forgot what that looked like here's a clip why do i love these wide open spaces they remind me of why our forefathers came here, not just for its beauty, but for the freedom only America provides.

16:21I'm Kristi Noem. Apparently the agency, Strategy Group, that's what it was called, which handled the Mount Rushmore shoot and got$130 million of the$220 million, hard to believe these numbers, is close to Kristi Noem and Tricia McLaughlin, her former spokesperson. Her family owns that company. so now you know why when she first gave her response and then she had to change it to set it to congressperson negusi she also lied about u.s citizens being detained or deported under her policies and lied about detention conditions in ice facilities and homeland security facilities what's going to happen what should happen is that christ is that christine Noem, her case will be forwarded to a special counsel by Pam Bondi, the head of the Department of Justice.

17:15And if she doesn't, which she won't, when Pam Bondi's back before the House Judiciary and Senate Judiciary Committees under oath herself, it'll set her up for a series of lies that she'll have to make to save her own hide. Again, yes, she may be pardoned, but history will not pardon her, nor be kind to her, nor to Kristi Nob or anybody else in this administration. And we'll make them pay at the poll and in history. I'm glad you're here on the Midas Touch Network. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, which we do in collaboration with Midas Touch. Hit that free subscribe button. We got over a dozen new videos every day, all for you.

17:54All we ask for is your support with a free subscription. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the sub stack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes.

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