Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

This article appeared for the first time in Propublica. Propublica is an investigative editorial room winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Register for the Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this in your reception box.

In 2023, when Kristi Noem was governor of southern Dakota, she completed her income by secretly accepting a reduction in the money she collected for a non -profit organization that promotes her political career, according to tax files.

In what experts have described as a very unusual arrangement, the non -profit organization sent funds to a personal company in Noem which had recently been created in Delaware. Payment totaled $ 80,000 that year, a significant increase in its government salary of around $ 130,000. Since the non -profit organization is a so -called dark silver group – which is not required to disclose the names of its donors – the original source of money remains unknown.

Noem then did not disclose the payment of $ 80,000 to the public. After President Donald Trump selected Noem to be his secretary of the Department of Internal Security, she had to publish a detailed accounting of her assets and sources of income from 2023. She did not include income from the Dark Money group on her disclosure form, which experts called on a probable violation of federal ethics requirements.

Experts told Propublica that he was disturbing that Noem personally took money from political donors. In a file, the group, a non -profit organization called American Resolve Policy Fund, described $ 80,000 as a payment for fundraising. The organization said Noem had brought back hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There is nothing remarkable about a politician who collects funds for non -profit organizations and other groups that promote their campaigns or their agendas. What is unusual, experts said is that a politician keeps part of the money for themselves.

“If the donors of these non -profit organizations do not only hold the keys to the political future of an elected official, but literally provide them with their income, it is new and disturbing,” said Daniel Weiner, a former lawyer for the Federal Electoral Commission who is now heading the work of the Brennan center on the financing of the campaign.

Propublica discovered details of payment in the annual tax form of the American Resolve Policy Fund, which is part of a network of political groups that promote Noem and its program. The non -profit organization describes its mission as “fighting to preserve America for the next generation”. There is little evidence in the public domain that the group has done a lot. During his first year, his main expenses were to pay Noem and cover the cost of certain unspecified trips. He also maintains social media accounts devoted to the promotion of Noem. He has 100 subscribers on X.

In a press release, Noem’s lawyer, Trevor Stanley, said: “Then Governor Noem fully respected the letter and the spirit of the law” and that the government’s ethics office, which deals with the disclosure forms for federal officials, “analyzed and erased its financial information with regard to this entity”. Stanley did not answer follow -up questions as to the ethics office was aware of the payment of $ 80,000.

Stanley also said that “Secretary Noem has completely disclosed all of his income on public documents that are easily available”. Asked proof of this, since Noem did not report the payment of $ 80,000 on its federal financial disclosure form, Stanley did not respond.

Before being appointed Secretary of Homeland Security, supervising the application of immigration, Noem spent two decades in the Southern Dakota government and the House of Representatives of the United States, causing the salary of an official. Her husband, Bryon Noem, runs a small insurance brokerage house with two offices in the state. Between his business and his real estate properties, he has at least $ 2 million in assets, according to Noem’s file.

Although it is among the least rich members of Trump’s office, its personal spending habits have sparked an opinion. Noem was photographed with a Gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch which costs nearly $ 50,000 while visiting the Salvadorian prison where her agency sends immigrants. In April, after her bag was stolen from a Washington restaurant, DC, it appeared that she was carrying $ 3,000 in cash, which, according to a manager, was for “dinner, Easter activities and gifts”. She was criticized for having used taxpayers’ money as governor to pay for travel expenses in Paris, Canada for hunting bears and Houston to do dental work. At the time, Noem denied improper use of public funds.

The personal company of Noem, an LLC called Ashwood Strategies, shares a name with one of its horses. He was registered in Delaware at the start of his second term as governor of the southern Dakota, around 1 p.m. on June 22, 2023. Four minutes later, the non -profit resolution policy was also formed in Delaware.

American Resolve raised $ 1.1 million in 2023, according to his tax file. The group said he had no employees and what he did with this money is not clear.

In 2023, the non -profit organization spent only about $ 220,000 from its war box – with more than a third of the one who went to Noem’s LLC. The rest was mainly at administrative expenses and at around $ 84,000 of travel budget. It is not clear for whom travel paid the group.

The non -profit organization said that he had sent the fundraising fees of $ 80,000 to Noem’s LLC as payment to provide $ 800,000, a drop of 10%. A professional fundraising which also collected funds for the group received a rate of 7%.

In the years that followed, American Resolve has maintained a low public profile. In March, he bought Facebook advertisements attacking a local media in southern Dakota, which had reported on Noem’s use of government credit cards. Noem’s lawyer did not answer questions about the question of whether the group paid him more money after 2023, the most recent year for which his tax file is available.

The non -profit organization has an affiliated political committee, American Resolve Pac, which was more active, at least in public. Stopping the conservative leadership of Noem under an image of his gaze in the sky, said that his website was created to put “Kristi and his team on the field in key races across America”. Noem traveled the country last year to attend events sponsored by the CAP to support republican candidates.

The treasurer of American Resolve referred questions to Noem’s lawyer. In his statement, Noem lawyer said that she “had not established, financed, maintained or controlling the American resolution fund. She was simply a seller for a non -profit entity ”.

Although Noem has not reported the fundraising income that Ashwood strategies have received on its federal financial disclosure, it has provided other details. She described the LLC as implying “personal activities outside my official governor capacity” and noted that she had received the advance of $ 140,000 for her book “No Go Back”. The LLC also had a bank account with between $ 100,001 and $ 250,000 and at least $ 50,000 in “cattle and equipment,” she said.

The fact that Ashwood Strategies is Noem’s company only emerged through the confirmation process of his Trump cabinet post. The southern Dakota has minimum disclosure rules for elected officials, and Noem had previously disclosed that it had created a parallel company while it was governor.

Noem’s external income may have taken the law of the Southern Dakota law, according to Lee Schoenbeck, a veteran republican politician and lawyer who was until recently head of the State Senate. Thelaw demands that senior officials, including the governor, devote their full time to their official roles.

“There is no way that the governor is supposed to have a private company that the public does not know,” Schoenbeck told Propublica. “It would not clearly be appropriate.”

Noem’s lawyer said that the Southern Dakota law had enabled him to receive income from the non -profit organization.

Do you have any information that we should know about Kristi Noem or other administration officials? Justin Elliott can be attached by e-mail to justin@propublica.org and by signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240. Josh Kaplan can be attached by e-mail to joshua.kaplan@propublica.org and by signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383.