Kristi Noem, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security and current U.S. envoy for the Shield of the Americas, is facing a new Hatch Act complaint over her use of a government jet for a political trip, as well as her use of government social media accounts for self-promotion.
The Hatch Act is a 1939 law limiting the political activities of federal employees with the aim of ensuring that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion and to prevent executive branch employees, except for the president and vice president, from using their office for political ends.
The complaint alleges that “Noem, and one or more members of her staff violated the Hatch Act by using public resources to travel to and attend part of the Republican Governors Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 11, 2025.”
American Oversight, the watchdog group that filed the complaint, also requested that the Office of Special Counsel, which handles Hatch Act complaints, investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s use of its official Flickr account to “publicize Noem’s attendance at the partisan RGA event and other similarly-political activities.”
Records show that DHS One, the name of the jet used by the secretary, was used for Noem’s trip to the Republican Governors Association in Nashville. Former advisor to President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski, who served as a special government employee during Noem’s tenure at DHS, and who was allegedly engaged in an extramarital affair with Noem, was also CC’ed on some of the communications regarding the RGA trip. Noem has faced questioning before Congress about the alleged relationship, and attacked the reports as “tabloid garbage,” though she stopped short of explicitly denying the allegations while under oath.
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Noem’s travel schedule, which makes clear she was traveling on DHS One, also makes clear that she was meeting with 15 governors who were in Nashville for the RGA, including Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., and Gov. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., who were marked in the schedule as the “RGA Chair” and “RGA Vice Chair” respectively.
The complaint also details how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Flickr account was used to post photos of Noem, promoting her attendance at the political event.
Noem has previously faced scrutiny over DHS’s leasing and purchase of a Boeing 737 Max 8 during her time as secretary, which featured showers, a kitchen, four large flat-screen TVs, a bar and a bedroom with a queen-sized bed. Though the department said the jet was intended to be used as part of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, they’ve since pivoted, saying that it will be made available so that other cabinet secretaries might be able to travel in its luxury interior.
Noem’s office at the Shield of the Americas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Salon.
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