The office has been investigating the ad campaign — including how three businesses with close ties to Noem won lucrative no-bid contracts to produce it — for several months, according to RealClearPolitics.
Last year, DHS awarded $77 million to a Louisiana-based firm operated by a former colleague of Noem’s top adviser Corey Lewandowski, and another $143 million to a little-known company called Safe America Media, which then subcontracted with the Strategy Group, a firm that has worked with Noem over several years.
The Strategy Group’s CEO Ben Yoho is married to now-former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
