Dan Bongino’s civilian podcast was “grifting.”
I want to normalize the proper term—a similar word—for FUNNELING GOVT RESOURCES TO YOUR PERSONAL CRONIES.

In a statement, DHS said, “DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.”

They said the agency does its contracting “by the book” and the process is run by career officials. “It is very sad that Pro Publica would seek to defame these public servants,” DHS added.

McLaughlin’s husband, Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho, didn’t respond to questions. It’s not clear how much his company has been paid.

Sheahan also didn’t respond to questions.

Asked about the firm’s work for DHS, DHS spox Tricia McLaughlin said, “We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen.”

“I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself," she said.

We’re still reporting on Kristi Noem, contracts at DHS, and the ad deal. If you have any information we should know, my email is [email protected] and I’m on the encrypted messaging app Signal (you can message me at js_kaplan.85)

Read the full story here: www.propublica.org/article/kris...

The same year the company got that big South Dakota ad contract, it sent up to $25k to one of Noem’s closest aides.

That aide, 28-year-old Madison Sheahan, now second-in-command at ICE.

This isn’t the first time the firm has gotten public money through a Noem contract. When she was governor of SD, the company got $8.5M in state funds for another ad campaign (starring her).

A former Noem admin official told us that Noem quietly intervened to push the deal.

This is the latest ad in the campaign, made by the Strategy Group at Mount Rushmore.

Noem filmed it on the second day of the government shutdown. It’s aired in recent days on “Fox & Friends.”

The consulting firm, the Ohio-based Strategy Group, has longstanding personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS.

It played a central role in Noem’s 2022 reelection campaign.

And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS.

Where that $220M ended up has been unknown. The main recipient listed on public docs was a Delaware LLC created days before the deal was signed.

We found there's been a secret beneficiary: a GOP consulting firm with a much longer — & more interesting — track record.

First, let's back up.

Noem has starred in a sprawling ad campaign she’s said is a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration—so crucial that DHS bypassed the normal competitive bidding process, designed to prevent waste & corruption in federal contracts www.propublica.org/article/kris...

I recently found out he'd said the 1972 ban on DDT ended polio outbreaks, not the 1950s vaccines. It's dangerous to have this man in the position he's in.

No, that was an ad agency for a chemical company. Not the government.

Since DDT wasn't sprayed until 1939 for insect control, maybe Mr. Brain Worms can explain where polio came from before then? Or where FDR got polio in 1921?

Me. I have been vaxxed since the Salk polio vax days. We were one of the first families in our hometown to line up for the Salk vaccine. I’m 76 yoa, grew up under coal dust darkened skies, chemically polluted creeks,
and DDT filled planes and trucks that dusted our little bodies. A vax is nothin’

This is super low key rebuttal of govt case, focusing solely on comms after Richman left FBI. There's reason for that: bc Comey shared classified details of SVR in January 2017.