JokersUpdates.com: Current Affairs - NEW: We’ve uncovered the first known example of taxpayer money flowing from DHS to businesses controlled by Kristi Noem’s allies and friends. It’s part of a money trail that’s been shrouded in

secrecy—and involves $220 million, a mysterious Delaware LLC & a horse named Gill.

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...

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Read the full story here: https://bsky.app/profile/josh-kaplan.bsky.social/post/3m5lo5lllsk2u